The NYC Department of Small Business Services has awarded six nonprofit community-based development organizations (CBDOs) from across the city, two of which are based in Queens, a total of $160,000 in grants.
SBS Commissioner Jonnel Doris announced the new round of grants through the Strategic Impact COVID-19 Commercial District Support Grants on March 10.
“We are thrilled to award additional funding to our neighborhood nonprofits to revitalize our most impacted commercial corridors,” Doris said. “We look forward to the continued work these organizations will do to support small businesses in a post-COVID-19 economy.”
The Strategic Impact Grants were designed to help execute local COVID-19 recovery support for small businesses and strengthen the city’s commercial corridors. Grant recipients are nonprofit CBDOs that serve one or more of the targeted 38 neighborhoods, selected by the city’s Racial Inclusion and Equity (RIE) task force. Recipients also include organizations providing technical assistance to CBDOs across the city.
In January, the city awarded $750,000 to 25 phase-one recipients. Jamaica Center BID in Jamaica, REMA 4 US and Rockaway Development Revitalization Corporation in the Rockaways were among those recipients.
To encourage submissions from additional neighborhoods in the five boroughs, SBS opened a second phase of the grant program in January 2021, awarding six CBDOs in the five boroughs by March.
This round’s Queens recipients included Urban Upbound, which mainly serves Astoria’s Queensbridge Houses, and the Queens Chamber of Commerce, which is based in western Queens and will target Corona and Briarwood.
Applications for a third phase opened on Monday, March 15, and will close on Thursday, April 15. SBS will target the grants to CBDOs serving specific neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. In Queens, the third phase will focus on Jackson Heights, Queens Village, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park and Kew Gardens.
The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) will continue to use the citywide Strategic Impact Grant to provide technical assistance and implementation support to CBDOs that are awarded Single Neighborhood Strategic Impact Grants.
Single Neighborhood Grants, one of three Strategic Impact Grants, will be awarded on a rolling basis, depending upon available funds, and provide exactly $20,000 in dedicated project funding for terms up to six months.
“We are excited to partner with SBS in their critical efforts to extend relief to the small businesses that provide essential goods and services, as well as employment, in the neighborhoods most impacted by the economic devastation of COVID-19,” said Barika Williams, executive director of Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD). “By expanding the capacities of community-based organizations working in commercial corridors, the Strategic Impact Grant will enable small businesses to access the resources that can protect them from potential displacement and permanent closure.”
