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Q&A

Support for small business owners in local communities

0:35:28

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67 sec

Council Member Rivera inquires about specialized support or opportunities available to small business owners who live in the communities they serve.

Khan explains that most grant funding is focused on community-based development organizations
SBS serves business owners directly across all five boroughs through Business Solution Centers
The agency has created a central outreach team that goes door-to-door to educate merchants about available services
SBS deploys a mobile unit (RV truck) that has visited over 40 community districts in the last fiscal year

Carlina Rivera

0:35:28

Are there any specialized forms of support or specific opportunities available to small business owners who live in the communities they serve?

Haris Khan

0:35:38

So most of our grant funding, achievera, is focused on community based development organizations and the work they do to reenergize, revitalize commercial corridors, which includes, right, artists, culture, restaurants, food, and beverage.

0:35:53

So that's the work of our division.

0:35:56

We also separate from this neighborhood development division regularly.

0:35:59

Every day, we also serve directly business owners across the corridors over 24,000, and we do that all five bureaus.

0:36:08

We've got business solution centers and all five bureaus that people can walk into.

0:36:11

But we also created the first ever agency outreach team.

0:36:15

It's a central team, which merged 2 different units that did external affairs, and now that team goes out to different communities and not only locks door to door to merchants to educate them on the services that are available, but we also deploy our mobile average unit, an RV truck that goes out to has gone out to over 40 community districts just in the last fiscal year.

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Examples of cultural initiatives in Union Square and 4th Arts Block

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Commercial District Needs Assessments (CDNAs) and arts integration