One year into the COVID-19 pandemic and southeast Queens continues to be one of the hardest hit areas in the state with hundreds of small businesses closing for good and others barely holding on.
Economic relief is on the way for struggling entrepreneurs and their recovery efforts after the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation was selected to receive $500,000 from the Wells Fargo Open for Business Fund.
The fund was launched in 2020 to help underserved small businesses stay open and preserve jobs through COVID resiliency efforts, expanded micro lending activities and programming for business owners in Black, African American, Hispanic, Asian and other communities. Greater Jamaica Development Corporation will use the grant to focus on serving minority- and women-owned small business owners in downtown Jamaica and elsewhere in Queens.
“GJDC is proud to continue our work with minority- and woman-owned small businesses in Jamaica, and Wells Fargo has been a key partner in ensuring we can fulfill our mission,” Greater Jamaica Development Corporation President and CEO Hope Knight said. “Since the pandemic began, southeast Queens has been one of the hardest-hit areas in the state, making our mission even more important, supporting entrepreneurs so they can keep their businesses open, hire more people and grow.”
The Open for Business Fund focuses on increasing access to capital, technical expertise and long-term resiliency programs. To date, Wells Fargo has distributed more than $120 million across 32 states to help entrepreneurs enabling them to keep nearly 50,000 jobs.
In addition to small business support, the CDFIs will develop and expand programs aimed to address systemic issues and unique challenges faced by diverse entrepreneurs. Greater Jamaica Development Corporation’s focused lending and robust free technical assistance will provide an economic lifeline to minority entrepreneurs, specifically entities that have less capacity to move their businesses online, have less capital on hand to withstand sudden downturns, and lack the access to family capital or other resources.
“New York is resilient but the profound effects of the pandemic means public and private sectors need to come together to invest in an inclusive economic recovery,” Wells Fargo Global Head of Public Affairs Bill Daley said. “This funding will help the hard-hit restaurant industry in the state and New York City as well as other local retail and service small business owners so they can preserve their livelihoods and those of their employees. Wells Fargo’s long history of working with Community Development Financial Institutions has proven an effective avenue for getting additional capital to those that need it most.”
