In a relief venture spearheaded by the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA) and in partnership with the city itself, a pilot program is being launched with the aim of providing further aid to businesses struggling through the COVID outbreak. This aid is targeted at specific neighborhoods in New Orleans that have long suffered a lack of attention from corporate scenes and other means of inducing cash flow, so the aim of the aid soon to be delivered is to serve as a stimulus. NOLABA has deemed the following seven target communities as being particularly vulnerable to business-related disasters including the current outbreak: New Orleans East, Lower 9th Ward, Hollygrove, Gert Town, Gentilly, Treme, and Algiers.

The program as a whole has an overall fund of $350,000 to its name, with a maximum of $5,000 allowed to each specific recipient in the pool of businesses. The aim of this stimulus money is to reinvigorate and propel currently lagging businesses beyond subsistence into at least moderate profit-turning. Small businesses specifically are the focus group, as any success on their part is expected to overflow to surrounding residents and, at the very least, provide a modicum of economic success in a largely suffering environment.

Aside from this specific project, NOLABA has been working alongside organizations like the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to further supplement the aforementioned seven areas in other ways. They have promoted and continue to foster community ideals critical to rebuilding a community, such as business retention, to help reach the eventual goal of weaning these communities off of direct stimulus plans as they become self-sufficient and successful in their own right.

There is a brief application form to fill out for interested parties, located on NOLABA's website, which you can find alongside more details about the project HERE.