COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery Guides
The COVID-19 crisis and associated recession have created massive challenges for cities. Given the unique nature and magnitude of this crisis and resource constraints, many local economic development teams lack tools to adequately respond and drive economic recovery. The aim of the Economic Response and Recovery Program is to help local economic development leaders rapidly develop and deliver impactful programming.
In April 2020, Bloomberg Associates launched the Economic Response and Recovery Program to help cities rapidly and effectively respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and work towards recovery.
As part of this work, we are developing tactical guides to help local economic development leaders accelerate the development and deployment of impactful projects. These straightforward, how-to guides provide cities with a concise set of recommended actions backed by practical case studies, step-by-step actions, and plug-and-play tools to accelerate implementation.
If you have questions on these guides or would like to learn more about the Economic Response and Recovery Program please contact us at econdev@bloomberg.org.
Tactical Guides include:
Economic Response and Recovery Roadmap
Business Retention and Expansion
Supporting Immigrant & Refugee Entrepreneurs
Equitable Economic Recovery
Inclusive Small Business Support
Municipal Economic Development Funding
Data Tools to Help Cities Make Economic Policy and Program Decisions
Business Reopening
Supporting Youth, and Displaced and Unemployed Workers
Municipal Support for Local Tourism Economies
Webinar: Accelerating an Equitable Recovery: How to Jumpstart Your City’s Inclusive Growth
In this webinar, hosted on February 9, 2021, Gordon Innes, Todd Rufo, and Lauren Racusin of Bloomberg Associates convened with more than 100 economic development leaders from cities across the country to share resources to help jumpstart a more equitable and inclusive economic recovery in their communities. Eric Kazatsky, Bloomberg LP’s Head of Municipal Strategy, joined our team of experts to discuss the current landscape amid the crisis. Leaders from Atlanta, Chattanooga and Newark also shared their personal experiences and lessons learned on the ground as well as how our toolkits are helping to advance recovery more quickly.
Economic Response and Recovery Roadmap
The roadmap compiles 37 practical actions to address the immediate and medium-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession on employers, workers, and small businesses. It also provides more than 100 examples of localities which are implementing these actions.
Business Retention and Expansion Tactical Guide
The tactical guide contains recommended actions to retain a city’s existing employers and grow jobs during the current recession.
Supporting Immigrant & Refugee Entrepreneurs
This tactical guide was developed in collaboration with New American Economy to help local economic and workforce development leaders support immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs through case-tested, rapidly deployable programs and strategies. It outlines the economic imperative for including immigrants in the COVID-19 economic recovery, the unique obstacles foreign-born business owners face, and the foundational principles that underlie the most successful programs. The tactical guide includes 7 action areas with strategies, case studies and additional resources to help cities implement these recommendations.
Equitable Economic Recovery
This tactical guide is designed to help local economic development leaders create effective and equitable recovery plans, using case-tested programs and strategies that city officials can deploy right away. Our tactical guide identifies the major economic challenges that many cities will face in the months ahead, describes the scale and scope of these challenges, and presents evidence-based strategies for designing and implementing effective recovery plans. This tactical guide highlights 11 key city actions to drive equitable growth, support small business, and tackle unemployment.
Inclusive Small Business Support
This tactical guide is designed to help City economic development leaders support minority- and women-owned (MWBE) and low-to-moderate income (LMI) small businesses in their communities. It includes 16 recommended actions, backed by practical case studies from across the US, step-by-step guides, resources to accelerate implementation, and metrics to measure long-term impact. Bloomberg Associates (BA) developed the guide in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), as part of BA’s COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery Program.
Municipal Economic Development Funding
The tactical guide identifies and prioritizes new sources of operating funding for economic and workforce development programming.
Data Tools to Help Cities Make Economic Policy and Program Decisions
The tactical guide compiles a list of 20 free, practical, up-to-date and easy-to-use data tools that economic development leaders can use to target their programming more effectively.
Business Reopening toolkit
The toolkit is a guide to national and international best practices to help businesses reopen safely. The guide will be revised and expanded over time.
Supporting Youth, and Displaced and Unemployed Workers
This tactical guide is designed to help local workforce and economic development leaders respond to current challenges facing youth and displaced, unemployed workers impacted by COVID-19. Sharing proven strategies and actionable models through in-depth case studies, this guide focuses on three key areas of workforce development: equipping youth for the workforce, helping displaced and unemployed workers re-enter the workforce, and innovative funding strategies to make those programs a reality. Bloomberg Associates (BA) developed this guide in partnership with Maher & Maher as part of BA’s COVID-19 Economic Response and Recovery Program.
Municipal Support for Local Tourism Economies
COVID-19 shutdowns, social distancing, travel restrictions, and quarantine orders have severely affected many U.S. travel and tourism destinations. The standstill of public life impacted not just tourism, but many industries related to tourism, including food services and the arts. This tactical guide contains 11 practical actions that cities of all sizes and their Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) can take to encourage safe visitor spend in the short term, support tourism and hospitality businesses to serve and adapt, and to build a more sustainable and resilient tourism economy.
