Inform, Entertain, Inspire
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Resiliency Grants Handed Out To Businesses In South Bend

Gemma DiCarlo / WVPE Public Radio

Sixty South Bend businesses received $5,000 each on Wednesday through the city’s Small Business Resiliency Grant program. The money is meant to help veteran, minority and women-owned businesses weather the current economic crisis.

Dominique Granger owns Majestic on the River, an event venue in South Bend. Unlike bars and restaurants, her business wasn’t able to reopen as lockdown restrictions lifted.

“There was no parties, there was no celebrations, there was no corporate events, there was no luncheons. We weren’t able to do anything,” Granger said.

Now, Granger has a lot of back expenses, which she said the grant will help repay. It will also help get her venue back on its feet once she can reopen.

“The resiliency grant will help us to be able to invest in some new equipment and things that we’ll need in moving forward, ” Granger said.

The grant program is a joint project between the city’s Department of Community Investment and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Mayor James Mueller said it’s important to connect the city government to underrepresented entrepreneurs. 

“We were able to build a database of roughly 600 of our local businesses and entrepreneurs, and so we have a way to keep in touch with them with future programming as well as reaching out to them to see what things might they need that the city could help them succeed,” Mueller said.

Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo

If you appreciate this kind of journalism on your local NPR station, please support it by donatinghere.  

Gemma DiCarlo came to Indiana by way of Athens, Georgia. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2020 with a degree in Journalism and certificates in New Media and Sustainability. She has radio experience from her time as associate producer of Athens News Matters, the flagship public affairs program at WUGA-FM.
Related Content