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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Randy Peers, President and CEO of Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
1:54:44
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146 sec
Randy Peers, President and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, testified about the Small Business Resource Network (SBRN) and Chamber on the Go programs, emphasizing their importance in supporting small businesses across New York City. He advocated for continued funding and potential baselining of these initiatives.
- SBRN is a $2 million ask that provides outreach and assessment services to small businesses in all five boroughs, serving over 16,000 businesses to date.
- Chamber on the Go, initiated by the city council, allows chambers and other organizations to provide mobile support services to small businesses.
- Peers highlighted the collaborative efforts of the five borough chambers during COVID-19 and their impact on the business community.
Randy Peers
1:54:44
Thank you, Chair Feliz.
1:54:45
Appreciate the time.
1:54:46
I'm gonna pick up on on Linda's testimony so we could add more context and and pick up on some of the things that you brought up in in your commentary.
1:54:54
Small Business Resource Network is partially funded through the administration, and then is the city council it's under the city council initiative five borough chamber alliance.
1:55:04
So the city count it's a 2,000,000 overall ask to fund the program, and that encompasses all five borough chambers.
1:55:12
And essentially, it provides outreach and assessment services working one on one directly with small businesses where they're at.
1:55:19
Right?
1:55:19
So the service delivery model is the is the difference here.
1:55:23
We actually go out in every neighborhood.
1:55:25
We speak 14 different languages.
1:55:26
We work with businesses at their doorstep.
1:55:29
We triage.
1:55:30
We set up a service delivery plan, and then we connect these businesses to whatever they need either from government or even from the private sector.
1:55:39
We've served over 16,000 businesses over the years that we've been operating this program, and we'd love to see this get baselined.
1:55:47
I mean, every year, we're coming and asking for this support.
1:55:50
The commissioner herself mentioned how important the program was as a complementary program to support SBS services.
1:55:58
We're, of course, a little concerned with a lot of transition that's been going on, so we hope to see an enhancement on the city council side to make us whole in that $2,000,000 initiative.
1:56:10
And and it really does pay dividends when it comes to to small business support.
1:56:14
So just to add that context there, Chamber on the Go, look, came out of the city council.
1:56:21
It's been a successful program.
1:56:22
It's not just chambers that that operates Chamber on the Go.
1:56:26
Merchant associations operated another Yemeni business association, for example.
1:56:31
So we support Chamber on the Go.
1:56:34
It enables us to, in in Brooklyn at least, to have a van that can show up at at events where we know we're gonna be supporting small businesses.
1:56:44
So I will just close by saying, look, the five chambers came together in a very positive way during COVID.
1:56:51
You know, not a lot of good things happened in the business community during COVID, but our our joint programming has really made an impact, and we hope that the city recognizes that impact because we approach these types of services, you know, from an on the ground level.
1:57:09
So thank you for your support.