COVID-19 Economic Disaster Relief Grant Program

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

In March 2020, at the very outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality (OEV) launched the COVID-19 Economic Disaster Relief Grant Program (CEDR). The purpose of the CEDR Program was to provide initial, rapid, and meaningful assistance to the most vulnerable members of our local small business community – those with less than 50 employees. The CEDR grant program was established in direct response to an acute economic crisis and was designed to provide a “bridge to a bridge,” helping local small businesses remain viable during the application period for other state and federal relief programs and incentives yet to be launched. Leon County was the first community in Florida to create a grant program of this type to support small businesses impacted by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Originally scheduled to run for a period of one month, OEV received hundreds of applications and disbursed more than $1 million in funding in less than two weeks. In total, the CEDR grant program provided $1,018,500 in assistance to 561 businesses, supporting the retention of 4,483 jobs.