Citizens Bank grants $165,000 to small businesses in Ohio

An organization that needs PPE, cleaning equipment and basic toiletries for its low-income senior or disabled residents, a local company that is providing software for healthcare workers, and a group working to provide online art workshops for students have been selected to receive urgently needed funding to help them survive this difficult time for small businesses and community organizations. They are among 11 Ohio small businesses receiving $165,000 in small business grants from Citizens Bank. Those recipients include:

• Famicos Foundation of Cleveland, which owns and manages subsidized apartment buildings where many of the tenants are seniors or disabled. Among other things, the foundation needs help providing PPE for both staff and volunteers who deliver needed food and goods to residents, as well as staff who must continue doing emergency repairs. Their residents need, among other things, basic toiletries, disinfectants and adult diapers.
• Total Voice Technologies of Cleveland, which specializes in implementing speech recognition software for healthcare workers. The company is currently giving away the cloud-based software to any healthcare worker to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. The software helps healthcare workers speed up the patient documentation process and, therefore, see more patients.
• Kulture Kids, which needs help transitioning art workshops and performances for students to online formats. Without help, the organization is in jeopardy of losing its entire workforce. The grant will also support a garden manager’s work providing much needed fresh produce to Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
• Cleveland Whiskey, which will use the grant to help pay staff the whiskey distillery has kept on while the company pivoted from making liquor. In partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, they have been producing, blending and bottling ethanol-based hand sanitizer for use by the Clinic’s 51,000 front-line healthcare workers. “No money changes hands, it’s just the right thing to do,’’ their application said.

Each grantee will receive a $15,000 as part of Citizens Bank's Small Business Recovery grant program. These direct grants are being issued to Citizens small business customers to help them continue operating and recover from adverse conditions brought on by the pandemic.

“These grants will go directly to Ohio small businesses, providing them with much needed cash flow and support to help them stabilize amidst the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Jack Murphy, President, Business Banking, Citizens Bank.

On April 6, Citizens announced a $5 million commitment to aiding communities through these challenging times, including $4.2 million in support of small businesses in the bank’s service area. As part of this overall commitment, Citizens is awarding 134 direct grants to small businesses.

Murphy added: “Small businesses are the heartbeat of the American economy, and we are committed to providing them with a vital jolt as they battle the economic implications of the pandemic.”

The full list of Ohio grant recipients is below:

• Bridgeway Home Inc.
• Club 300 Catering Inc.
• Common Ground Family Services LLC (CGFS)
• Famicos Foundation
• Kulture Kids
• Manufacturing Works
• S&P Subs Inc. DBA Subway
• The Brunch Box LLC
• Total Voice Technologies
• Vispiri Inc. DBA Cleveland Whiskey
• Wagner's Tax Service