Grants Available For Dedham's Small Business Owners

Press release from the Town of Dedham:

September 9, 2020

Dedham small business owners affected by the pandemic may be eligible for up to $10,000 in grant funding to redress losses caused by the pandemic.

Only microenterprises are eligible, meaning:

1. for-profit business entities,
2. with 5 or fewer employees (full-time equivalency), and
3. owned by one or more of the employees.

The Town of Dedham was awarded $280,500 in federal funding to provide assistance to microenterprises owned by Dedham residents—whether or not their business is located in town.

Eligibility is also limited by an individual or family's household income, which must be less than or equal to 80% of the median income for the area in which they live. Per guidelines from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), priority will be given to applications from Woman, Minority, Veteran, LGBTQ and Disability-Owned Businesses. Certain business types are excluded from this funding, including real estate rentals/sales businesses, businesses owned by persons under age 18, businesses that are chains, liquor stores, weapons/firearms dealers, lobbyists or cannabis-related businesses.

Please note:

• The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Friday, September 25.
• These are grants, not loans.
• Assuming applications will exceed available funds, grants will be distributed by a lottery after the application deadline has passed.
• For more information about eligibility and eligible uses of the funding, see: https://www.ashlandmass.com/831/Grant-Opportunities
• The application form is online only: https://massgcc.submittable.com/submit
• The staffs of participating towns are working to make this information available in other languages.
• Dedham residents needing assistance completing the application should contact John Sisson, (781) 751-9175, jsisson@dedham-ma.gov

Dedham joined a coalition of 23 cities and towns whose application received nearly $5 million in microenterprise grant funding through the federally-funded Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 (CDBG-CV) program. Other coalition members include Beverly, Burlington, Canton, Concord, Essex, Lexington, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marlborough, Melrose, Milton, Natick, North Reading, Norwood, Randolph, Reading, Sharon, Southborough, Stoneham, Watertown, Winchester and Woburn. Residents of those towns who own microenterprises may be eligible to apply.

For this funding, HUD gave preference to applications from coalitions. Dedham joined an effort organized through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Ashland is serving as the lead community. The application process and grants are being administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation.

This press release was produced by the Town of Dedham. The views expressed here are the author’s own.