Florence Morning News
September 1, 2021
FLORENCE, S.C. – A local religious organization partnered with the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce to offer an information session on aid programs made available through the federal COVID-19 relief bills.
The Kingdom Living Temple’s community development nonprofit, New Alpha, and the small business chamber held a news conference Tuesday morning to announce the workshop organized by Coronavirus Relief SC and managed by DESA Inc. that was help Tuesday evening.
Camille Shaw, project director of Coronavirus Relief SC, spoke at the news conference about the need to help minority businesses work to survive through the pandemic and the government-mandated shutdowns initiated to slow the spread of the virus.
Shaw said that each ethnic group considered to be a minority suffered a decline in business ownership over the past 18 months.
She said that African American business ownership decreased by more than 40%, Hispanic business ownership decreased by 32% and Asian business ownership decreased by 26%.
Shaw said the the Paycheck Protection Program provided a valuable lifeline to keep businesses afloat but added that only 2% of African American-owned businesses received the loans.
The Paycheck Protection Program [PPP] was developed for and included in the first federal economic stimulus package called the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security [CARES] Act that was signed into law by former President Donald Trump in late March 2020.
For more information about the programs available, visit coronavirusreliefsc.com.