Washington, June 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday, June 17, as part of the "Vaccine Month of Action," The White House, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Public Private Strategies Institute hosted a South Central regional briefing for small business leaders on COVID-19 recovery as part of the "Getting Back on Track: Help is Here" webinar series.
Over 2,000 participants joined the live briefing featuring former Congressman Cedric Richmond, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office for Public Engagement, to hear about the importance of vaccinations, recent actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to help narrow the racial wealth gap, and a reflection on President Biden signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act declaring June 19th a federal holiday.
“The first step of getting back on track is to get you and your employees vaccinated,” said Congressman Richmond as he reaffirmed his support for small business owners, and all the Biden-Harris Administration actions making it easier to get vaccinated—free childcare, free round-trip car rides to vaccination sites, extended pharmacy hours on Fridays—in addition to businesses offering incentives such as cash prizes and free first-class flights.
Rhett Buttle, Public Private Strategies Institute President, described the importance of engaging with small business owners and helping them during these times: “We have been so thrilled to partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the whole Biden-Harris Administration as we’ve embarked upon this tour. We know what a challenging time it's been over the last year and a half as we closed down our economy due to the public health crisis. But we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, vaccines are getting into arms, our main streets are reopening, we’ve seen the economic aid help businesses survive, and now we want to make sure small businesses have all the tools they need to hire workers back, grow our economy back, and build back better.
”Participants benefited from an in-depth question and answer session with Region 6 SBA Acting Administrator Herb Austin, and Alejandro Contreras of the SBA Office of Disaster Assistance. Both speakers provided detailed updates on available COVID-19 economic aid programs, such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), Targeted EIDL Advance, and Supplemental Targeted Advance.
SBA recommends applicants, interested parties, and qualified entities check these additional resources for economic aid and vaccinations:
- SBA Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center: 1-800-659-2955. Operation Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday; 1-800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard of hearing, or DisasterCustomerService@sba.gov
- Local Resources Partners: https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance or www.sba.gov/asistencia
- Website: www.sba.gov/eidl and www.sba.gov/targetedadvance
- Low-income mapping tool: https://sbaeidl.policymap.com/
- Subscribe to the SBA's e-newsletter: www.sba.gov/updates
- Follow the SBA on Twitter: @SBAgov
- Visit vaccines.gov to learn more.
Disclaimer:
Cosponsorship Authorization # 21-0501-14: The SBA’s participation in this cosponsored activity is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products, or services of any cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.
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