CSCC WorkForce Development and Area Partners Covid 19 Response

Graphic of coronoa virus with Covid 19 text.

CSCC WorkForce Development and Area Partners Covid 19 Response

Tony Bartolo
Thursday, March 26, 2020 12:00 AM
OneSource

Update from the VP of Workforce and Economic Development on Coronavirus COVID-19

(03/15/2020)

As the situation with the Coronavirus continues to evolve, we want you to know we are making contingency plans with the best interest of our students, faculty, staff, and community in mind. Administration is monitoring and following recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Tennessee Department of Health.  In light of this fluid situation, the institution has made the decision to move all face-to-face classes, online beginning March 18, and the online format will continue through the end of the semester.  During this time, faculty and staff will work remotely. For updates go to www.mycs.cc/covid19

As more cases are confirmed, Administration has made the decision to postpone all on ground Workforce Development training and Continuing Education classes.  We will continually monitor the situation and keep everyone updated.

Please contact Andrew Lindberg alindberg@clevelandstatecc.edu, Heather Brown, hbrown@clevelandstatecc.edu, or April (Bre) LaMountain alamountain@clevelandstatecc.edu and they will work with you to reschedule training.

Should you have any questions regarding Continuing Education classes please contact Andrea Byerly abyerly01@clevelandstatecc.edu or email continuinged@clevelandstatecc.edu.

We understand this is uncharted territory and we are working to ensure the safety for everyone involved. 

Please feel free to contact me as well with any concerns:  Dr. Patty Weaver pweaver@clevelandstatecc.edu.  Again, we will continue to monitor this situation and keep you updated

Patty Weaver, Ed.D.
Vice President 
Workforce and Economic Development
Cleveland State Community College

 

Update from Area Partners Coronavirus COVID-19 Response

Cleveland/Bradley Chamber

Under the current extreme circumstances, the Chamber has taken several proactive and strategic measures in hopes of best assisting and facilitating communications for our entire community as follows:

  1. We have set up a specific link on ClevelandChamber.com, located at the top of the home page labeled “News & Community Business Updates” for the purpose of shared key information and updates. Similar to the “Community Events Calendar” individuals can obtain access through a log in / portal.
  2. The web page is additionally linked through the Chamber’s Facebook page in support for even greater audience reach.
  3. Additionally, the Chamber is in the process of modifying our Facebook page to be made available to the broader business community for the purpose of individual businesses being able to share and directly post updates and changes; to further support timely and efficient communications. 

That said, kindly note the Chamber remains open for any and all collaborative conversations and recommendations for the greater common good.

 

SBDC that is partnered with Cleveland State Community College on the Cleveland State Community College campus:

 As of right now, Bradley, Polk, Monroe and Hamilton County businesses may apply for the SBA Disaster Assistance Loan for economic injury due to COVID-19. We expect that all of Tennessee will open shortly, but I have not received word that that has happened just yet. 

Economic injury is defined as follows:

Here is what is meant by ECONOMIC INJURY for purposes of any loan to be provided, once the COVID 19 declaration is done for TN:

"Businesses can only seek assistance for economic injury (not physical damage) as a result of the incident [COVID 19].

Substantial economic injury occurs when a business concern is unable to meet its obligations as they mature or to pay its ordinary and necessary operating expenses. 

Establishing economic injury is a comparison between the financial information from the period in the prior year to the injury period of the current year - this period must be associated to the [IMPACT OF COVID 19] and cannot be attributed to a downturn in local economy or other unrelated issues.

For example, if [employees are unable to work; or major conferences cancelled from which the business received revenues; or if a restaurant experiences substantial reduction in customers due to social distancing or because local or state officials are asking or ordering businesses to temporary close or reduce services (e.g., take out only)] and the business [will] not able to be re-established for two months, the business should consider how long it will take for things to normalize.

If it’s three months, the analysis [for a loan would] show the financial data for the same three months of last year and the anticipated financial data for the same period this year.

The loans are not intended to replace lost sales or profits, rather they are intended to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other expenses that could have been paid had the [IMPACT OF COVID 19]  not occurred.

Analyzing a drop in sales, the length of time the business will be impacted, the type of business and typical business cycle of the industry, provides the SBA [loan officers] with the requisite data needed to determine if the economic injury is considered substantial."

For those of you in touch with manufacturers that may qualify as a small business, per SBA size standards (https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards), feel free to share this information. Size standards may not adhere just to the number of employees (typically 500 or fewer) but depends on their NAICS code and annual revenue, which can be surprisingly high.

The application for the disaster assistance loan is located at this site: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/Information/Index. We are recommending that applicants work through the paper versions of the forms required for the application prior to submitting online. If they have any questions, we are happy to assist. Email is probably the best way to reach out to us at this stage, due to the number of communications we are receiving right now. Direct them either to me at jdecook@tsbdc.org or Ann at azack@tsbdc.org and we will do what we can to get them through the process. There is also an SBA customer service number, 1.800.659.2955, that they can call.

Both for profit and nonprofit entities are eligible to apply for these direct-from-SBA loans. Businesses that do not qualify are farmers, ranchers, religious organizations, charitable organizations, businesses related to gambling activities, and a few others that might be involved in real estate development or other ineligible activities. Most, however, will be able to apply and are encouraged to apply. There will be some flexibility on credit history, etc. due to the ever-changing nature of the pandemic and impact on the economy. They also need to ask for as much as they think they could possibly need in the long term. Amounts can be adjusted later. Have them include any supporting documents or information that will assist the loan processors. The more complete the application is from the beginning, the faster they will receive funds.

We are doing our best to post relevant and timely information as we get it on our Facebook page, so feel free to encourage others to follow our page: https://www.facebook.com/TSBDCClevelandEMPOWERS/.

Jennie DeCook, MBA
Director
Tennessee Small Business Development Center
Cleveland State Community College – Technology Bldg.

 

 

 

 

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