Program will boost women entrepreneurs
We’re in a “shecession.” The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt us a major economic recession, stretching businesses and workers thin over the past year. But women workers and women-owned businesses, especially women of color, are in dire straits.
Black and Hispanic women have been hardest hit due to the enormous loss of work in historically female-dominated industries: leisure, education, child care and hospitality industries, among others. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that women made up 55 percent of the 20.5 million jobs lost in April 2020.
In Connecticut, women-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, forcing many business owners to choose between paying rent or making payroll, or whether to move their business online to stay open. It hasn’t been easy. Many of our smallest businesses are hanging on by a thread.
Relief in the form of PPP loans and small business grants, funded by federal dollars, have been lifelines to countless businesses across our state. For that, we’re grateful. But nationally, women business owners have been largely passed over when it comes to direct, targeted federal stimulus money.
Of the more than 60,000 Connecticut businesses that secured federal loans for COVID-19 relief, an overwhelming majority were male or white-owned: 78 percent were male-owned; 84 percent were white-owned; 7 percent were Asian-owned; 6 percent were Hispanic-owned; and 3 percent were Black-owned, according to the Women’s Business Development Council.
Over the past several months, we’ve met with women entrepreneurs to see firsthand the pandemic’s impact on Connecticut businesses. It was clear that we needed a financial vaccination to help stabilize a stormy economic climate that has impacted too many women entrepreneurs. But we must also commit to prioritizing women entrepreneurs in order to eradicate historically racist and sexist barriers to business success that their male counterparts have simply not experienced.
So together, we raised $525,000 from generous corporate and private funders to help womenowned businesses succeed. The Equity Match Grant Program, administered by the Women’s Business Development Council, helps entrepreneurs access the capital needed to build banking relationships, improve credit and overcome COVID-19 challenges.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development has been working tirelessly to provide financial support to businesses and nonprofits through grant and loan programs, like the $50 million CT CARES Small Business Grant Program. As part of their dedicated effort to boost small business growth, DECD immediately stepped forward to match our funds dollar for dollar, bringing the total amount of funds available in the Equity Match Grant Program to more than $1 million.
Over the next few weeks and months, we will continue to raise money from private and corporate funders, and DECD will continue to match these funds up to $1 million.
Funds from the Equity Match
Grant Program can be used to purchase critical business assets such as the personal protective equipment needed to comply with reopening guidelines, or to pivot to an online business model, which will help increase revenue and improve cash flow. Grants between $2,500 and $10,000 may be given for clearly defined projects that will have a measurable impact on the business. You can visit ctwbdc.org for more information.
The Equity Match Grant Program is just one of the ways we can deliver much-needed support to women-owned businesses who have been hardest hit during this “shecession.” Going forward, we’re committed to finding more ways to provide an economic boost to make COVID-19 business challenges a little easier for Connecticut’s women entrepreneurs to weather.
It’s simple: supporting small businesses means greater economic growth. For every dollar spent at a small business, 67 cents stay in the local economy. A large part of our collective economic success depends on providing women of all backgrounds with more opportunity. Opportunity to start and expand their businesses, opportunity to improve and build credit, and opportunity for young women to acquire effective financial and business acumen. This is how we build an economy that works for everyone — because when women succeed, we all succeed.
The Equity Match Grant Program, administered by the Women’s Business Development Council, helps entrepreneurs access the capital needed to build banking relationships, improve credit and overcome COVID-19 challenges.
Susan Bysiewicz is Connecticut’s lieutenant governor and chairwoman of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls. Fran Pastore is CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council, a not-for-profit organization that supports economic prosperity for women through entrepreneurial and financial education services.
Pomperaug’s Alaina Karp and Oxford’s Nicole Bobby weighed in on the unenviable task gymnasts face daily — the pursuit of perfection.
Unlike Sisyphus, the king in Greek mythology who rolled an immense boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down every time it neared the top as a punishment, gymnasts choose to seek the faultless score of 10 from judges.
“Gymnastics is hard, you have to work to get better and adding difficulty to your routine makes it harder, but is what you need to do to get the better score,” said Karp, a senior who has been challenging herself in the four events since the age of 4.
“My coach (Hal Rettstadt) does a very good job at pushing people to get better but he also knows their limits. He is very good at pushing you to a place you know deep down that you can reach. He instructs in a positive way.”
Karp was third in vault (8.85), fourth in all-around (34.95) and tied for fourth on beam (9.0) and floor exercise (9.0) as Pomperaug tied New Milford for the South-West Conference title a year ago.
She believes a gymnast’s expectations must be lowered during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had a fourmonth break from summer workouts to now. I’ve never had such a huge break from practicing before a season starts,” said Karp, a firstteam All-State selection. “I used to be very hard on myself on the scores I received. With such a long break, it has been hard trying to practice through this pandemic. This year I’m going to try to be as positive as I can be.
“I want to be proud of myself and proud of my team over what we’ve been able to do; not what we weren’t able to do.”
Bobbie earned All-SWC honors the past two seasons and believes the diminished offseason will have a toll.
“All of the girls were out of the gym for six or seven months at a time,” Bobbie said. “The first two to three months of training again, we were only doing conditioning and basic gymnastics. It wasn’t really until December that we started working on our skills and our competition routines for the upcoming season. I think our nerves are going to be high during the first few meets. We will go out again the next meet and work to the best of our
ability.”
Karp and Bobbie agreed that being judged and not controlling the end-result is a constant form of exasperating.
“There were times when I thought I did well in an event and then I saw the score come out and I see it’s not as high as I thought it would be,” Karp said. “Sometimes I would get angry about it and wonder why I received that score. Gymnastics is a subjective sport, so one may judge may think your team is
very good and another may think your team is not that good. It is a hard barrier to get through.”
Bobbie said: “You compete twice in the same week with the exact routine and get lower scores. You have to realize it may be the equipment or you may have forgot to point your toe exactly during the routine. You must realize it will get better. It comes with experience that your score in high school gymnastics will be all over the place.”
Being recognized for your ability is a double-edged sword.
“We have a lot of talented
girls on our team and everyone knows the names,” Bobbie said. “It’s hard to be perfect and when you try to be that is where flaws will kick in. You will wobble on the beam or you forget to point your toe the tiniest bit on vault or bars. It is hard, but we still strive to be perfect.
“As a team we talked about having fun this year. We’re basically new at this after not competing for a full year. We are going to do what we do in the gym and have fun.”
One person died and four others were wounded in an overnight shooting at an American Legion club in southeast Missouri, police said Sunday.
KAIT-TV reported that officers found the five victims at the American Legion building in Kennett following the report of the shooting before 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
Two people were flown to a hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in critical condition. Two other victims were being treated at local hospitals.
No arrests were reported immediately Sunday morning in connection with the shooting.
Police said no additional details on the shooting were available Sunday morning. A man who answered one phone number for the American Legion post Sunday said he didn’t know anything about the shooting before hanging up. There was no immediate response to a message left by The Associated Press at a second phone number for the facility.
The Missouri State Patrol and Dunklin County Sheriff’s office are helping with the investigation.