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On June 30, 2021, Governor John Bel Edwards announced more then $315 million in federal coronavirus relief aid will be allocated to 290 Louisiana towns and cities under the American Rescue Plan to help them respond to the ongoing COVID-19 emergency and support economic recovery. “The American Rescue Plan provided vital aid for communities largeRead more

Help is available for restaurants, bars, and other similar businesses impacted by COVID-19. The recently passed American Rescue Plan created a new $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), which provides grants to eligible entities like restaurants and bars to cover certain pandemic-related expenses. Date / Time: Monday, May 17 3:30 – 5 p.m. CDT JoinRead more

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law this week. The law makes an additional $7.25 billion available for the Paycheck Protection Program and expands eligibility to most 501(c) nonprofit organizations. It does not, however, change the program’s March 31 expiration date. The law also extended the Employee Retention TaxRead more

Back in March of 2020, when lockdowns began to be put in place and more than 40 percent of us began commuting from our beds to kitchen tables or makeshift home office spaces, no one could’ve expected that many still do that same commute a year later. Yet here we are. The big question facingRead more

The state of Louisiana will take the next step toward coronavirus recovery. On Tuesday, March 2, Governor John Bel Edwards stated that he will begin to loosen the coronavirus restrictions that have been in place for over three months, moving the state into Phase 3 of the reopening plan. This will allow most businesses operateRead more

How to Grow When It’s Slow is another Blog Series brought to you by the Acadia Parish Chamber.  “I just got off a coaching call with a client in Detroit,” recalls business expert Cameron Herold. “He’s got about a hundred employees in his manufacturing shop and I was talking to him about culture while they’reRead more

When will things return to normal and what will our new normal look like? It’s a question that business, economic and government leaders are grappling with as more and more Americans receive the COVID vaccine. To help answer this complicated question, Morning Consult is tracking how consumer attitudes are shifting across a wide range ofRead more

How to Grow When It’s Slow is another Blog Series brought to you by the Acadia Parish Chamber. “Imagine,” suggests business expert Cameron Herold, “if you train your employees on interviewing, train them on effective meetings, train them on an email management, train them on time management, or if you could really work on skillRead more

The COVID recession that began in March 2020 has had a disparate effect on workers depending on many factors: industry, occupation, level of education parental status, race, and gender. For example, declines in employment have been largest for workers of color and those with less formal education. Such disproportionate effects owe in large part toRead more

In a collaboration among the twelve reserve banks of the Federal Reserve System, the publication of this report seeks to document the toll the COVID pandemic took on small businesses in 2020. At the time the survey was fielded, six months into the pandemic, closures, layoffs, depressed revenue, and uncertainty continued to plague small businessesRead more