As founder and president of the Pascale Sykes Foundation, I not only stand firmly against police brutality and discrimination in any form, but also advocate against the white privilege so woven into our society that many people may not recognize it.
I urge all of us to work within our institutions, neighborhoods and families to invite, welcome and accept opinions and direction from those who may seem different from ourselves. It will be uncomfortable, but is absolutely necessary. As individuals, we have a myriad of ways to take action including adjusting our words and actions to uplift the voices of communities of color and step aside so they too have an equal say in the matters that impact their lives.
Good things take time. Growth is not easy. We can’t act only once and say we’ve done our part. This will take an ongoing effort. I hope to join others as we work toward real change for our communities, families and the world in which we live.
How THRIVE South Jersey is Helping One 50-Year Old Business Support its Community During the Pandemic
When Bob and Carey Hettmannsperger purchased the historic diner Essl’s Dugout in 2018, their goals were to put their culinary skills to use by running a successful restaurant and making delicious food for their community. For nearly two years, they did just that, serving signature breakfast plates and chicken pot pies to a loyal customer base.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Bob and Carey’s well-established business was turned upside down. At a time when many restaurants were forced to close, they quickly pivoted to find a way to stay open. Thanks to support from THRIVE South Jersey, an initiative of New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC) and the Pascale Sykes Foundation, Bob and Carey were able to quickly secure financial support that has allowed them to continue doing what they do best: making and serving good, quality food to the members of their West Atlantic City community.
Today, Bob and Carey are much more than restaurant owners. They are an essential support system to their community, providing food to working families and keeping other businesses such as meat and produce vendors afloat. We had the chance to speak with them about the important role Essl’s plays in the community today, what support from NJCC has meant for their business and how this support has helped them to pay it forward.
Can you tell us the history behind Essl’s Dugout?
Carey: Essl’s Dugout is a small diner-style restaurant that’s been around for nearly 50 years. Bob Essl founded it in 1972, and he named it “Essl’s Dugout” because the family had three boys who played for the local Pleasantville baseball team. Our family bought the business in 2018. We both have culinary backgrounds, and we had been looking for an opportunity to own and manage our own restaurant. Of course, we knew when we bought the business that we wanted to keep the original name to keep the history alive. Every day, people would walk in reminiscing about how they’ve been coming to Essl’s since they were children.
It sounds like Essl’s holds a special place in your community. What were your first thoughts when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and you learned that all restaurants could resume operations as takeout only?
Bob: My immediate concerns were what would happen if we had to shut down the restaurant completely. How would we pay our vendors and staff? How would we pay our mortgage on the restaurant building? Even if we were allowed to stay open, how would we get supplies from our distributors? Families in the area would be out of work and therefore wouldn’t be able to spend money eating out, so how could we stay open even if we were able to manage it?
Even through all this uncertainty, we acted quickly. Within a day, Carey and I developed a plan that would help us to stay open by restructuring our business around a takeout model that allows people the option to purchase cooked food or meal kits to cook at home. We also sell a variety of groceries including meats, vegetables and pantry items.
Can you tell us about how you first started working with NJCC?
Bob: Before we bought Essl’s Dugout, we were looking for a restaurant to invest in but knew we wouldn’t qualify for a traditional bank loan because we didn’t have enough money to put down. We asked around and eventually, a representative at a bank referred us to Laura, a program manager at NJCC. We met with Laura in June of 2018, and she and her team realized we had the resumes and cooking experience to put together a successful restaurant. Within four months, we had a loan and a working restaurant. The whole process moved like clockwork. Everything was easy, there were no hidden costs, and the NJCC team made everything very clear and accessible for us. It makes me want to do it again, because it was so easy!
How has your new loan through the THRIVE South Jersey initiative helped your business weather the pandemic?
Bob: As soon as the pandemic hit, we contacted NJCC right away to find out what kind of support was available to us if we couldn’t pay our loans. NJCC quickly got back to us with information about the THRIVE South Jersey program, a loan that provides immediate, no-cost assistance to businesses like ours that are less likely to have access to traditional sources of capital.
Applying for the program was a matter of completing a simple application form online. Less than 14 days after submitting our application, the money was in our account. It was unbelievable how fast it happened and how quickly we were able to cover all our costs. Now, we can breathe. We know we’re going to be okay. Without this support, we would have had to close like most of the other restaurants in our neighborhood. It is amazing to have this kind of financial support that allows the little guys to stay open. Many of our friends in the restaurant business have not been as lucky and are still trying to receive loans through the government. NJCC cares, and that’s the biggest thing.
Take us through a day in the life at Essl’s during a pandemic. What do business operations look like for you right now?
Bob: When we decided to stay open, our number one goal was to continue providing quality, affordable food to support the working families in our community. It took some reconfiguring: we changed the tables around, bought an extra freezer, purchased a trailer and made use of a walk-in refrigerator we ordinarily wouldn’t have used to store groceries. We still offer our full breakfast and lunch menu, but we also sell meat, dairy products, produce, pantry items and meal kits people can take home to cook.
Carey: Every day, Bob starts his day between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m., preparing food and posting about our latest offerings on Facebook. I get started in the kitchen around 7:00 a.m., baking, meal prepping, and preparing pot pies and soups. And from there, it’s nonstop work all day to serve our customers and make sure we have enough food prepared. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation: our kids are involved, and my sister and family are helping, too. Everyone is pitching in to meet the demands of this new normal. It’s exhausting, but it’s worth it: our customers are thanking us constantly, which makes us feel good.
What has the community’s response been to your modified operations?
Carey: We’ve been so lucky to see so much community support. Our customers are happy they can still purchase quality foods. In just the past two months, we’ve sold more than 2,000 pounds of chicken cutlets and 500 pounds of dough and filling for pot pies. The demand has been constant. Our vendors are happy, too — we are able to continue purchasing supplies that helps to keep them in business. And of course, we’re happy to keep our business afloat and provide a resource to support people during this difficult time. It’s a win-win-win.
From your perspective, how is keeping Essl’s Dugout up and running providing support to working families in your community?
Carey: Our role in this crisis is to provide people with the meals they need to keep going. Our customer base has always largely been working professionals: electricians, landscapers, cops and EMTs who are still on the job working 12-hour days and need some place to eat. We serve them coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and pancakes when they’re on their way to work, and sandwiches and chicken pot pies when they’re on their way home. We also provide an option to purchase groceries and meal kits for families that they can prepare at home.
By staying in business, we’re also helping keep other businesses afloat. For example, our meat and produce vendors are big bulk vendors who used to sell supplies to casinos in the area that are now shut down. Now, we’re one of their biggest clients. They’re grateful to us because we’re supporting their business. We’re able to pay it forward.
What do you think life beyond COVID-19 will look like for Essl’s Dugout?
Bob: It’s hard to see us totally going back to the way things were before. We’ll probably see new health guidelines to protect restaurant staff and customers, and that will affect our business model. People will probably continue to use delivery service more than visiting crowded restaurants. We expect to resume operations as a dine-in restaurant but with an option for takeout and possibly still sell groceries. We’re optimistic about the future.
By Paula Sarro, Associate Executive Director, and Debbie Panek, Director of Family and Youth Programs, Mercy Center
When Mercy Center and three other service providers formed the Familia Adelante collaborative in 2017, joining forces to weather a global pandemic was not part of our mission. As a group of like-minded agencies in the New York area, we sought to maximize our impact on improving the well-being of working, low-income families by practicing the Whole Family Approach, a family-led strategy which provides adults and children in the family with the tools to set, plan for, and achieve their goals together. Now more than ever, we now recognize that this collaborative approach and focus on equipping families with the tools to plan for the future is helping us all survive the immediate crisis in which we are now living.
The Whole Family approach seeks to strengthen families and their core capabilities so that the adults and children flourish in all aspects of their lives. It goes without saying that the COVID-19 outbreak has unsettled the ground under the feet of families working towards their goals. Nearly every family we work with is enduring a severe financial hit, as many parents have lost their jobs or had their work hours significantly reduced. School closures have forced families to quickly set up their children for distance learning from home — a particular challenge for those with limited internet and technology access. For larger families living in small spaces, crowded living quarters have strained relationships between family members and pose significant challenges if a family member needs to self-isolate due to illness.
As a collaborative, we have also had to drastically shift how we communicate with each other and the families with whom we partner. To date, Familia Adelante — comprised of Mercy Center, Fiver Children’s Foundation, Qualitas of Life Foundation, and Tanya Valle, a mindfulness practitioner — has partnered with 78 families to achieve a wide range of goals in the areas of economic stability, educational opportunities, family functioning, and adult and child well-being. Each agency within the collaborative contributes services that families can access to achieve their goals and works with other agencies to monitor families’ progress. What we’ve learned in this time of great change is that the trusting relationships and dedication to partnership we’ve built over the years are fundamental to the resilience our collaboration and families are relying on today.
We hope our lessons learned from the Whole Family Approach will be helpful to other nonprofits seeking to grow their impact now and in the future.
The Whole Family Approach builds families’ skills to plan for the future and overcome hardship.
Right now, families have shifted their focus from long-term goals to immediate needs. For example, instead of developing a financial plan to eventually purchase a home, we are working with families to plan how they will pay their rent next month. Rather than exploring college opportunities and vocational aptitudes we’re making sure families have connected with their children’s teachers, are set up with a computer and working internet connection so they can access class work online.
These can feel like frustrating setbacks, but the connected relationships and strengths-based coaching involved in the Whole Family Approach has supported the growth of executive functioning skills in both the adults and children. These core skills help families navigate times of adversity and shift their focus to meeting urgent needs. For example, the first thing families learn when they begin working with Qualitas of Life is the importance of saving money and managing a budget. As a result, many families have set aside money toward an emergency fund or a long-term goal, such as purchasing a home. Those funds are helping families cover their immediate financial priorities. Similarly, the work families have done setting educational goals for their children by working with the Fiver Children’s Foundation enables parents to continue motivating their school-aged children to keep up their schoolwork from home. Having these tools in their toolboxes provides families with greater resilience and self-determination to endure challenging, unexpected situations.
The Whole Family Approach builds trust between service providers and families, which boosts long-term outcomes.
The most important link between the families and the services provided by Familia Adelante are the Family Workers, staff members who serve as dedicated service provider liaisons and trusted life coaches for families. Family Workers now spend much of their time supporting families via phone, text, and video conferencing as everyone adjusts to drastically new circumstances. These ongoing connections emphasize to families that while our building may be closed, our services have not shut down. Family workers share information about where to access free or low-cost food, talk anxious parents through setting up online learning websites, and assess how families are managing the myriad new stressors of the pandemic.
Familia Adelante staff built a foundation of trust over many months of face-to-face engagement, workshops and classes. While families are accessing services now through almost-exclusively virtual mediums, that trust remains and allows the work to continue. Our collaboration agencies have a history of demonstrating to families that they matter to our staff and in the greater community; that consistency gives families the confidence to seek our support in times of calm and uncertainty. A strong foundation of trust between families and agencies is inherent in the Whole Family Approach, and it has proven to improve long-term outcomes.
The Whole Family Approach necessitates that collaborating agencies dedicate funding and human resources to effectively synchronize their efforts to support families.
When all in-person workshops were canceled due to the pandemic, the Qualitas of Life coordinator set up a WhatsApp group for families who had participated in money management courses or one-on-one financial counseling. The dedicated group gave participants the opportunity to share experiences and ideas, leaning on one another for support and reinforcing positive financial behaviors they had learned. Recently, a participant in the group asked the financial coordinator at Qualitas to connect her with Tanya Valle, a mindfulness practitioner who is one of our collaborators. The mother had previously participated in workshops that Tanya had led and hoped to practice some of the mindfulness techniques she had learned. Tanya was able to connect with the participant by phone and review de-stressing exercises and ways to maintain space for self-care.
This supportive, coordinated work to help one family feel grounded was possible thanks to the dedicated funding Familia Adelante receives to operate and provide services as a collaborative. This designated funding enables Mercy Center and the rest of the organizations within the collaborative to work with more families more deeply. It also provides agencies with infrastructure to share resources, organize priorities and think creatively and flexibly about how best to provide services. Collaboration of this scale and effectiveness rarely happens without the foresight to allocate such funding and human resources, like the support we receive from the Pascale Sykes Foundation.
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Practicing the Whole Family Approach has created a larger support network for each agency in the Familia Adelante collaborative, and for the families with whom we work. When we pool together our resources, hold each other accountable to our goals, and nurture the human relationships that remind our families of their value, we support resilience in the face of adversity. Pandemic or no pandemic, working together enables all of us to better accomplish our mission and create meaningful, lasting change.
Like many of you, the Pascale Sykes Foundation has spent the past month taking swift action to support the well-being of our grantees and the families they work with as they face the many hardships caused by COVID-19. As much as ever, our work is guided by the belief that working, low-income families are the backbone of communities everywhere. Below is an update on how our Foundation has dedicated its resources in response to this crisis.
Expanded our THRIVE South Jersey Initiative with New Jersey Community Capital to Support Small Businesses: We recognize that the economic fallout that this pandemic has caused is greatly impacting working families, many of which rely on small businesses for access to essential items and for employment. Keeping small businesses afloat is a way to also help families and communities stay afloat. Through THRIVE South Jersey, an initiative developed to address economic hardship in the targeted four-county region of Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, and Western Atlantic Counties, small businesses in South Jersey can apply for zero-based interest rate loans and receive approval and funding within 10 to 14 days of application — delivering immediate relief in unprecedented times. Learn more here.
Provided Additional Funding For Grantees and Families To Stay Connected: As COVID-19 began impacting our grantees’ operations, the Foundation solicited feedback to understand their greatest immediate needs. Funding for additional tech support and equipment to maintain communication among collaborating agencies and with their families emerged as one of the greatest needs. During times of crisis, moving to virtual modalities to maintain both these lines of communication is especially important. More than 10 of our grantees have since received emergency funding to cover a range of needs including investments in technology, additional staff time, and emergency assistance for families. Learn more about our grantees here.
Keep Our Community Informed: In an effort to keep our grantees and families healthy and well informed, we’ve compiled a range of COVID-19 related resources available through our website and NJ’s Heartland community hub. Please share with others who may find these useful.
Highlight the Resilience of Families: Ariel Toribio shared how participating in the Whole Family Approach with Families for Literacy has given his family the tools and hope to weather this storm, “The bond my family and I have is even stronger now as we face this crisis together.” Read Ariel’s inspiring story here.
Adjust our Research Efforts: For the past several years, the Pascale Sykes Foundation has partnered with research teams at the Senator Walter Rand Institute of Public Affairs at Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania to evaluate the impact of the Whole Family Approach. With the onset of COVID-19, we have adjusted our evaluation grants to measure the long-term effects of this crisis on the families our grantees partner with. Are the children and families participating in the Whole Family Approach responding differently than the children and families not participating, now and in the future? Learn more about our research so far here.
We thank all of our partners for their tremendous efforts to support families in maintaining their gains, addressing new needs and continuing to build the resilience of their communities. We will get through this together.
Before establishing the Pascale Sykes Foundation, I worked as a elementary and middle school school teacher. For nine years, I taught everything from first-grade remedial reading to seventh-grade math in multiple states. Though the students, location and subject matter differed year to year, every classroom I taught in had one thing in common: what happens in the home impacts outcomes at school.
I also learned that each family member’s success is linked to the success of the other members of the family – adults and children alike. When the whole family succeeds together, lasting growth occurs. To this day, these lessons learned as a teacher heavily influence how I approach our work at the Foundation.
The Pascale Sykes Foundation’s mission is to build strong families by funding collaborative efforts designed to strengthen child well-being, healthy relationships and financial stability through the Whole Family Approach. Our collaboratives partner with working families, teachers and counselors to establish consistent and helpful practices within the home, creating greater stability for families so children can achieve positive outcomes in school and families can reach their goals together.
Our Current Challenge
Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread emotional, financial and physical instability. Schools are closed. Children are home and without a system of structure that school often provides. Parents are working remotely or not at all. Stress and anxiety are high. For working, low-income families, these changes are even more challenging than they are for stable middle class families.
To understand how we can provide the best assistance during this crisis, the Foundation asked two of our education collaboratives what they were seeing in their work with adults and children and what families need to be effective learning and working remotely. Child Connection Center is a collaboration of two school districts, a Catholic school, and a guidance center, that focuses on families of children in grades pre-K through 8. South Jersey First Star is a collaboration of First Star, Rowan College and CASA, focusing on foster children, their foster families and, when applicable, their biological families.
We heard from these collaboratives was that parents are facing a number of challenges that impact their ability to support their children’s school work:
Parents are expected to play a bigger role in teaching their children so they can complete assignments, but may lack technical equipment to communicate with schools or counseling support to establish balance in the home so that schoolwork can get done.
Some parents are working in essential jobs outside of the home, but may not have the time or the ability to supervise their child’s distance learning.
Many adults in service and similar industries are recently unemployed, lack transportation or experiencing other roadblocks that can add to stress and financial instability, impacting overall well-being for the family and disrupting healthy relationships between parent and child.
Working Together in a Crisis
In response, the Pascale Sykes Foundation has taken several steps to aid our collaboratives to adjust to this crisis, promote more effective learning strategies in the home and ease the financial burden that the current crisis has caused.
Here are a four ways we are working to strengthen our community and improve family stability now and for the long term:
Awarded grants for technical equipment and social-emotional support. Grantee organizations are using funding to provide access to iPads or laptops, Internet services, Zoom subscriptions, mental health counseling sessions and tutoring for children and parents.
Established resource libraries on the NJ Heartland and Pascale Sykes Foundation websites to provide up-to-date, user-friendly resources families need to maintain stability. Individuals, businesses and nonprofits can have free access to the latest resources, health guidelines, education developments and other helpful information.
Worked with New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC), our local Community Development Financial Institution, to expand the THRIVE South Jersey initiative. This program provides immediate 0%, low-interest and forgivable loans with an application turnaround within 10 to 14 business days. The quick loans keep the small businesses and nonprofits that are integral to our community and working families up and running while they await federal funding. Our contribution was leveraged by financial institutions and the state government, resulting in even greater impact.
Adjusted our evaluation grants with the Walter Rand Institute and University of Pennsylvania research teams to measure the long-range effect of this crisis on our families for insight into how future practices and policies can be improved to help families during a future crisis.
My life as a teacher taught me to always be aware of the delicate balance between school, home and work. For many working families, all three are under pressure. In times of crisis, it is more crucial than ever that families have the resources they need to provide support to each other and the children they care for.
We will continue working with our grantees to best support their efforts in to connect working, low income families with the tools and social support they need to overcome the added pressures created by the COVID-19 epidemic. Now, more than ever before, we must work together to ensure that families – and children in particular — who are disproportionately impacted by this crisis are equipped to weather this crisis. Our communities depend on it.
“The bond my family and I have is even stronger now as we face this crisis together,” said Ariel Toribio, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected millions of lives around the globe. “We are extremely thankful for Families for Literacy and their work; they’ve truly made a difference in our lives.”
After Ariel moved from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. in 2015, it was important to him and his wife, Lisa, that their two children have access to the best education possible. In 2018, they enrolled their oldest son, now 10, in New City Kids, a program that provides after-school programming and academic support for local youth. Their son flourished in the program, but Ariel and Lisa were concerned they lacked the language proficiency and skillset to become more involved in his schoolwork.
Ariel soon learned that New City Kids, along with three other service providers Women Rising, Saint Peter’s University and Rising Tide Capital, were part of a collaborative of organizations called Families For Literacy which promotes family well-being through English language classes, academic support, financial education and more. Working hand-in-hand with families, the collaborative uses the Whole Family Approach to provide adults and children in the family with the tools to set, plan for, and achieve their goals together.
Deeply motivated to improve his English, Ariel, Lisa and their two children began working with the Families for Literacy at the end of 2019. They began working with a family case manager, Josh, to set academic goals for their two children and enroll in ESL classes. Josh also connected them with other services Families for Literacy had to offer, such as financial coaching and career-building workshops.
“I love that Families for Literacy is focused on integrated development for the entire family,” Ariel says. “We work together, both the kids and the parents, to hold ourselves accountable to the goals we set forward.”
After five months of hard work, the Toribio family had made significant progress toward their goals: Ariel and his wife were both employed and working with their son regularly to set weekly academic goals. Ariel had made progress with his English language skills. The family was beginning to set financial goals, working on budgeting techniques with Josh. Though the family was always communicative with one another, the skills they gained from Families for Literacy helped them to become even closer, helping them to realize how much they had in common as they pursued their goals together.
Then, the COVID-19 outbreak changed everything. Ariel quickly recognized that his and his son’s asthma put them at increased risk. Concerned for the well-being of his family, Ariel stopped working as soon as he began hearing of coronavirus cases in New Jersey, which significantly impacted the family’s financial security. Both of the family’s children had to quickly transition to attending classes and completing schoolwork online. Ariel missed his ESL classes and the benefits of seeing and practicing with his classmates in person. The family’s financial planning and budgeting goals were now on hold while Ariel and Lisa focused on making immediate ends meet.
The situation is frustrating, but working with Families for Literacy has given the Toribio family a solid foundation to weather this crisis. The budgeting tips they learned from Josh are helping them to better manage their finances in an emergency. Lisa is now able to work from home, allowing her to balance her career with caring for her children. Both children are doing well in their online classes. Ariel plans to continue focusing on learning English through the online support offered by the collaborative, and the new learning approach is motivating him to practice at home more with his family. Ariel’s son has even started to hold him accountable for meeting his language goals.
“If he sees me just sitting on the couch, he begins to question me and forces me to do my own homework and brings it over so I can practice,” says Ariel.
Every day brings a new challenge, but the Toribio family never feels alone. They lean on the relationships they have built with Josh and the attentive Families for Literacy staff who check in regularly and keep their spirits up. More importantly, the bonds the family has with each other are stronger than ever.
“My family and I are looking forward to staying united and continuing to support each other through this. I am choosing to look at the positive side during this crisis,” Ariel says. “There’s always a light at the end of every difficult situation, and Families for Literacy can be that for anyone who gives it a chance.”
The Pascale Sykes Foundation and New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC) announced the expansion of the THRIVE South Jersey Initiative (THRIVE) to meet the immediate needs of small businesses and nonprofits critically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through THRIVE South Jersey, an initiative developed to address economic hardship in the targeted four-county region of Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, and Western Atlantic Counties, small businesses in South Jersey can apply for zero-based interest rate loans and receive approval and funding within 10-14 days of application — delivering immediate relief in unprecedented times. NJCC used its experience helping small businesses recover after Hurricane Sandy to form this innovative approach to providing emergency assistance through THRIVE.
“We know that small businesses are the heart of our communities and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many are encountering unexpected challenges in a rapidly changing market,” said Wayne Meyer, president of NJCC. “Consistent with our mission, this expansion of THRIVE ensures that small businesses and nonprofits are provided with equitable and inclusive opportunities for relief, stability, and growth. We believe that small businesses are the lifeline of the New Jersey economy.”
“Our cross-sector approach is critical to driving this work forward and getting small businesses what they need quickly to stay open and operational during this crisis that we’re all facing,” said Frances Sykes, president and CEO of the Pascale Sykes Foundation, a champion of the Whole Family Approach. “Furthermore, we recognize that the economic fallout that this pandemic has caused is greatly impacting working families, many which rely on small businesses for access to essential items and for employment. Keeping small businesses afloat is a way to also help families and communities stay afloat. We’re proud to expand our partnership with NJCC and hope to provide some relief to local residents and businesses.”
Applying lessons learned from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the Foundation and NJCC recognized that small businesses required access to immediate funding with low interest rates in order to survive the economic setbacks resulting from COVID-19. Small businesses and nonprofits often lack access to traditional sources of capital. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) like NJCC are uniquely positioned to provide accessible and affordable financing to communities that are disproportionately affected during a crisis.
Some small businesses have already benefited in South Jersey. Owners Bob and Carey Hettmannsperger of Essl’s Dugout, a restaurant located in Egg Harbor Township, shared how the loan is helping them keep their business afloat during this challenging time: “We are very grateful for the opportunity to be supported by our local community. Funding secured through THRIVE South Jersey will help us to continue serving many of our patrons and keep the legacy of this staple institution alive during this time of uncertainty. It’s good to see New Jersey working together. This is a win for small businesses.”
NJCC partnered with the Pascale Sykes Foundation in 2014 to launch THRIVE South Jersey, as part of Pascale Sykes’s South Jersey Strengthening Families Initiative. Over the years, THRIVE has offered flexible, affordable capital and capacity building assistance to generate quality jobs and improve economic opportunity across the four-county area. Its funding model, which provides cross-sector financial support, can be replicated in other states facing similar challenges.
To those businesses located in areas outside of the THRIVE market, a 3% interest rate loan is available for eligible applicants through the Garden State Relief Fund, a $20 million statewide program managed by NJCC. This funding leverages and complements state- and federal-level relief programs to ensure that resources reach the small businesses and nonprofits in communities with the greatest needs.
To Apply
Eligible small businesses must have three to 50 full-time employees and be located in Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, and Western Atlantic Counties to meet the criteria for the no-cost loan. There are roughly 50 small businesses that have applied to date. To submit an application, complete this form and return via email to [email protected] further information regarding this initiative and the Garden State Relief Fund, please contact New Jersey Community Capital at 732.640.2061, ext. 143 or by email at [email protected].
As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve we want to continue to share helpful resources and information on a variety of different topics. We understand the challenges that COVID-19 presents, particularly for working, low-income families. Below are helpful webinars. We will continue to update this page with new resources.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority recently announced new initiatives to support businesses impacted by COVID-19. The New Jersey Business & Industry Association, the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce and the Commerce & Industry Association of New Jersey are partnering for a special webinar conversation with NJEDA CEO Tim Sullivan, on Tuesday, March 31 at 4:00 p.m. Our goal is to provide valuable insight to these programs and answer the wide range of questions that have been asked by businesses and non-profits throughout the state. Please join us for this important information-packed webinar to learn what your business needs to survive during this crisis and come out stronger on the other side.
At the Pascale Sykes Foundation, we are committed to the health and safety of our community. As the nation works to address the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we are grateful for the many people who are at the forefront of stemming its spread. We understand the challenges that COVID-19 presents, particularly for working, low-income families, and hope to share helpful information with our community.
