Resources
This worksheet is designed to help you think through how the Equitable Pathways to Recovery Framework could be applied to your specific context as you develop a new small business program or modify an existing program. It can be used to plan within your agency or department, or by multiple stakeholders in a collaborative, or as a roadmap for engaging with a broader set of stakeholders.
The questions are intended to help you give deliberate attention to equity and the practicalities of implementation. The process of working through the questions with colleagues, partners, and stakeholders can foster stronger, more inclusive communication and coordination.
Start with a preliminary program scope in mind, and then consider the questions in the subsequent sections to refine your program.
Describe your proposed program, including:
- What is the need or gap you are targeting?
- What segment of BIPOC small businesses are you targeting (by location, population, industry, business size, business stage of development, or some combination of these)?
- What is the timeline of the major components or activities of the program?
- Who could execute each of the program components? Are there additional agencies, departments, or private stakeholders who could be tapped to share resources for developing and/or implementing the program?
- What will be different for your target beneficiaries because of this program? How does the program advance equitable recovery in your town, city, or region?
Being intentional: Define local small businesses and their needs
- In what ways have the targeted small businesses been affected by the identified need or gap as compared to businesses generally?
- What are the key characteristics of those business owners? In what ways are their needs, gaps, or opportunities distinctive?
- How will they be better off because of the proposed program? How might they be burdened by it?
- What measures can you take to mitigate or remove burdens or unintended negative consequences?
- How do the voices and perspectives of those most impacted inform your analysis? Where are opportunities to strengthen their leadership and ownership over your proposed intervention?
Being inclusive: Identify and engage planning and implementation partners
- How do the perspectives and experiences of those most impacted by the program inform your planning? What are the specific ways in which this is visible?
- What organizations or groups have experience working with this population on similar or related programs? How do their perspectives and experiences inform the proposed program? What are the specific ways in which this is visible?
- What potentially relevant individuals or groups are not included? What opportunities are there to involve them?
- How will you ensure ongoing communication and coordination with beneficiaries and partners throughout planning, implementation, and evaluation?
- Where are opportunities to strengthen their leadership and ownership over your proposed intervention?
Ensuring program accessibility: Identify and address barriers to access
- BIPOC small businesses from accessing similar or related programs in the past?
- What measures can you take to prevent your proposed program from reproducing or perpetuating those barriers?
- What current factors (conditions, practices, policies) might prevent a BIPOC small business from accessing the proposed program’s funding or services?
- How are you helping those less able or trusting to navigate the requirements and process for accessing the program? (If you have an application process, how have you designed it so the application process itself is not a barrier?)
- Do the current partners have the skills and relationships to assist participating small businesses? If not, whom else should you involve?
Leveling the playing field: Identify and account for capacity needs in deployment
- What resources (e.g., funding, staffing, infrastructure) do you and partners need to successfully execute the program?
- Who will execute each of the activities of your proposed program? What will be their roles/responsibilities? Do they have the capacity (the skills, knowledge, staff, relationships, and budget) to execute them? If not, what partner or resource can you enlist to ensure that each role/responsibility is filled?
- What administrative capabilities do you need to support these activities and coordinate activities among partners?
- How will you ensure ongoing communication and coordination with beneficiaries and partners?
Setting up a monitoring process: With accountability mechanisms
- What criteria and metrics are you using to measure progress toward your intended results?105
- How feasible is it to collect and understand the right data? What can you do to impose the least burden possible on those who will be providing and collecting the data?
- How will you use the data to make adjustments to program activities and objectives along the way? What protocols or other mechanisms are you using to hold you accountable to your intended results?
- How will you communicate this progress with program beneficiaries, partners, funders, and other stakeholders?
Additional Resources
Equitable Recovery Framework Resources
- Chicago Inclusive Growth Coalition, Inclusive Growth Toolkit for Business Service Organizations: Standard Outcomes and Recommended Metrics
- Facilitating Power, The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership
- Government Alliance on Race and Equity, Racial Equity Toolkit: An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity
Access to Capital
- California Reinvestment Coalition, CRC Resilience Fund for BIPOC-led CDFIs
- Greenlining Institute, A Fair Financial System: Regulating Fintech And Nonbank Lenders
- CNote, list of Black-led CDFIs
- Native CDFI Network, list of Native CDFIs
- State Small Business Credit Initiative, Best Practices from Participating States: Loan Guarantee Programs
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, State Small Business Credit Initiative, SSBCI Program Profile: Loan Guarantee Program
Business and Workforce Capacity
- Democracy Collaborative, Leveraging Anchor Institutions
- Greenlining Institute, The People of Color Small Business Network: Supporting Entrepreneurs in East Oakland
- International Rescue Committee, California Nonprofits and the Public Workforce System: How CBOs Can Make Their Voices Heard in the WIOA Planning Process
- Race Forward, Racial Equity Readiness Assessment for Workforce Development
Local Policy
- Democracy Collaborative, Resources for Local Government on Community Wealth Building and Local Economy Preservation Funds
- Greenlining Institute, The Greenlined Economy Guidebook
- New Economy Coalition, Pathways to a People's Economy
- NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives, NYC’s Future Is Cooperative: A Policy Platform for and by Worker Coops
Federal Policy
- Brookings Institution, From Relief to Recovery: Using Federal Funds to Spur a Small Business Rebound
- HUD Exchange, CDBG Economic Development Toolkit, which includes: The Economic Development Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Constructing Your Economic Development Program and Microenterprise Assistance Toolkit
- Internal Revenue Service, COVID-19-Related Employee Retention Credits: How to Claim the Employee Retention Credit FAQs
- U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development program
- U.S Small Business Administration, Community Navigators Program
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, Small Business Facts: The Importance of Business Ownership to Wealth
