
Better Together: How Rutgers is Helping to Create a More Equitable Recovery from COVID-19
Small businesses are vital to the fabric of their communities, and they are in peril. Pandemic-related economic hardships already have led many of these businesses to close permanently. For those that are still open, serious economic and operational challenges remain.
While all communities are suffering, low-income and minority communities are suffering disproportionately. For minority- and woman-owned businesses, the financial challenges and disparities they faced before the pandemic are now compounded. Low-income and minority communities also face greater risks of COVID-19 infection and death—a fact that poses a huge threat to overall recovery.
Recently, Rutgers Global Health Institute launched a program that addresses these inequitable circumstances and offers a pathway toward overcoming them in New Jersey. The program, Equitable Recovery for New Jersey’s Small Businesses, is designed to help small businesses and nonprofit organizations in low-income and minority communities.
In this webinar, institute director Richard Marlink and program manager Arpita Jindani will be joined by university and community partners. They will discuss the challenges minority communities are facing across the state, problems unique to underserved neighborhoods in Rutgers’ backyard, and what is needed to address these disparities—during the pandemic and beyond.