WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (March 16, 2020) -- The City of West Palm Beach cares about its local businesses and their sustainability during these difficult times. To aid our business community, the City will be in regular contact with other economic development organizations including the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Florida Atlantic University. Together, a series of resources and assistance are being developed to respond to the challenges brought on by COVID-19. Below are a series of resources and tools that businesses can use to help prepare, respond and recover from the recent emergence of COVID-19.  

 Additionally, the SBDC is encouraging small businesses to complete the business damage assessment. This survey helps determine the need for COVID-19 Federal, State disaster assistance. The survey can be found here.

For General Information and Updates for Businesses:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-business-response.html
• Florida Department of Health – http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/COVID-19/covid19-toolkit.html

For information and to apply for aid:

• Small Business Administration: http://floridasbdc.org/small-business-preparedness-recovery-resources-for-the-coronavirus/
• Florida Business Damage Assessment Surve: https://floridadisaster.biz/BusinessDamageAssessments
• Florida Disaster Bridge Loan: https://floridadisasterloan.org/

Any other questions or to provide additional information to help your small business needs:

• Health Department call center: 1 866-779-6121 COVID-19@flhealth.gov
• SBDC at Florida Atlantic University - http://www.fau.edu/sbdc/
• Florida Department of Economic Opportunity - http://www.floridajobs.org/
• For City of West Palm Beach business assistance contact Christopher Roog at croog@wpb.org

The City will continue to regularly update residents and business owners about closures, cancellations and resources pertaining to COVID-19 through the City’s website: https://www.wpb.org/government/mandel-public-library-of-west-palm-beach.