South Bend awards small business grants

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – The city of South Bend is awarding grants worth $600,000 to small businesses to help alleviate financial strain related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city says it will host an Emergency Assistance Fair to provide more information about the emergency small business loans and other available COVID-19 relief on Friday.

“Before this pandemic, it was a priority of mine to attract more financing for small businesses from CDFIs,” said Mayor James Mueller. “Now that groundwork has opened the door to providing these relief options and helping our local businesses weather this economic storm.”

The city is partnering with two community development financial institutions, Bankable and Accion Serving Illinois and Indiana, who will administer the emergency small business loans.

The fair will be held alongside nonprofit CDFI Friendly South Bend, Accion Serving Illinois and Indiana, Bankable, the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce and other local financial institutions. The city says the groups will share resources to help South Bend’s small businesses keep their teams employed and contribute to the community.

The city says lenders will also be available at the event, and financial institutions will provide information about the Small Business Administration relief programs.

“The current health & economic crisis has hit so many small businesses in our community hard. We’re excited to team up with the City and its partners on this important program,” said Chamber President & CEO Jeff Rea. “We appreciate that the Mayor and City have recognized the critical needs of local businesses and have marshalled the resources needed to help those small businesses survive this challenging time.”

More information can be found by clicking here.