Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Playbook - Flipbook - Page 83
Supporting Business Preparedness Eforts Through Existing Programs
California is fortunate to be home to multiple technical assistance programs funded by public and private entities. These small
business programs, which include Women Business Centers (WBCs), Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), Service
Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), Veteran Business Opportunity Centers (VBOC) and others, have existing infrastructure,
outreach tools, and personnel that can be utilized to support a business recovery efort. These programs ofer specific services,
as required by their funders, and in many cases, these services involve disaster assistance. For example, the largest technical
assistance program in the state, the California SBDC Network, is advised in its federal program announcement by its funder,
the SBA, that “SBDCs individually, and in cooperation with SBA and other federal agencies as well as state and local entities, are
encouraged to provide disaster recovery assistance to support impacted small businesses in local economies.”107
It would be a simple efort for SBDCs to align their required services to local economic development and state preparedness,
resiliency, and recovery eforts and to collaborate on small business programming. This collaborative process increases the
capability to secure funding for economic resilience as a component of the jurisdiction’s recovery plan.
An important service of technical assistance providers — including local economic developers — is to help small businesses
prepare business continuity and disaster readiness plans. Many no-cost tools are available to assist businesses in boosting their
preparedness acumen. An inventory of commonly used tools can be found in Appendix 1.
One unique public-private partnership program that has proven efective in leveraging web and digital tools to foster private
sector interest and engagement in resiliency planning is the Outsmart Disaster campaign (https://outsmartdisaster.com).
The campaign is jointly administered by the California Ofice of the Small Business Advocate and the California Academy for
Economic Development (the Academy), the 501(c)3 afiliate of the California Association for Local Economic Development.
The Outsmart Disaster Campaign
Launched in 2018, the Outsmart Disaster campaign originally focused on helping businesses prepare for the next big
earthquake and has since evolved to include an all-hazard approach to economic disruptions and disasters. The campaign’s
objectives are to:
• Help businesses improve their decision-making processes by providing planning tools that are high impact, grounded in
disaster hazard science, and easy to apply and customize. The Outsmart Disaster training curriculum incorporates a wide
range of resources from agencies such as the Red Cross, SBA, and FEMA;
• Focus on identifying a business’s unique needs and vulnerabilities and conducting risk assessments to determine which
areas require the most planning and preparation; and
• Ofer some strategies that businesses can adopt to maintain resiliency, protect their stakeholders, and help give the
business owner peace of mind.
The campaign has two primary assistance components: the Resilient Business Challenge and the Resiliency Toolkit.
The Resilient Business Challenge is a self-guided online tool curated
by state and local economic development experts that includes five
detailed steps to business resiliency. Small business owners can access
the training on their own schedule and at their convenience; the tool saves
their individual progress, allowing business owners to pause and resume
the online tool as needed during the training. Figure 8.2 (on page 76) shows
the various stages of the Resilient Business Challenge, which is based on
an original curriculum developed by the California Business, Consumer
Services and Housing Agency and the California Seismic Commission that
has roots in the National Preparedness Framework.
107
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/FY%202021%20CORE%20NOTICE%20OF%20FUNDING%20OPPORTUNITY_v07.29.2020_FINAL.pdf
Recovery Deep Dive: Engaging Businesses Before, During, and After Disruption
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