Stone Mountain, Georgia
March 7, 2024
Chatham County, Georgia
March 7, 2024Through the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD), the City of Somerville has implemented its vision for the future, called SomerVision 2030, that sets goals through 2040 for the City’s growth and development. The OSPCD has taken the lead role in planning and implementing major economic projects designed to increase the City’s tax base and create new jobs.
SITUATION
The OSPCD implements the vision outlined in SomerVision 2030 by stimulating growth in underutilized sites and districts. A particular focus has been placed on supporting small, independently owned businesses, disadvantaged businesses (e.g., minority-owned, women-owned, immigrant-owned, and veteran-owned), as well as businesses in industries hard-hit by the pandemic (e.g., hospitality, fitness, etc.). The Division has managed three separate rounds of business support in the form of forgivable loans.
TASK
iParametrics was engaged to advise City staff through the fourth and potentially fifth rounds of loans. The project entailed outreach to the businesses that have not yet benefited from the program and distribution of funding to those that qualify. These two additional rounds of loans total $4 million.
ACTION
iParametrics worked with the City to develop a marketing and outreach campaign to businesses targeted for the next rounds of funding. We then built an online portal for application processing that allowed for applications in a variety of languages to provide access for business-owners who spoke English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian-Creole, and Nepali. We provided assistance to business owners submitting their applications and provided a comprehensive record-keeping and accounting system for the City to account for all monies expended, applications, loan agreements and associated records.
RESULT
This program is now complete. The additional rounds of funding were fully dispersed to approved businesses.