Additional $320,000 Disbursed through Kankakee and Iroquois County COVID-19 Community Response Fund

The Kankakee and Iroquois Counties COVID-19 Community Response Fund announced today it has distributed an additional $320,000 to 17 organizations serving Kankakee and Iroquois counties. The fund established by the United Way of Kankakee and Iroquois Counties and the Community Foundation of Kankakee River Valley also announced it has raised more than $650,000 since its launch in late March, including a $200,000 grant from the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund in late May. With this most recent round of funding, the Kankakee and Iroquois Counties Response Fund has made grants of $570,000 to 30 unique organizations.

If you think back to your days as an employee, you may recall that one of the best cases for a raise, a title change or even a promotion was to just learn new skills. For your business, the path to operational improvements, margin increases and new revenue streams is identical.

If you and your employer have already experimented with a distributed team, you know that many of the major concerns around remote work — compromised productivity, camaraderie and accountability — were grossly overstated and easily checked. But the question of how to maintain a happy remote team — that takes a lot of care and intentionality.

For 1099 workers who have lost work due to COVID-19, a new application portal will open on May 11 via the Illinois Department of Employment Security website. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provides 100% federally funded unemployment benefits for those who are not eligible for the state’s regular unemployment insurance program, the extended benefit program or Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), including independent contractors and sole-proprietors.

Businesses that think through the needs of their customers in an ever-changing and adapting world will ultimately outlast their competition by offering solutions that work well both today, post-pandemic and in the next big world change, whatever it may be.

In order to help Illinois manufacturers and other businesses procure the appropriate masks and personal protective equipment, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association is creating a new Manufacturing Sourcing Center that will be available on the IMA website.

To support small employers through the COVID-19 national health emergency, the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) has announced the availability of new U.S. Department of Labor WIOA grant funding for layoff aversion, planning and rapid response.

In a flash poll of Kankakee County lenders on Monday, the Economic Alliance learned that in the federal Paycheck Protection Program’s initial $350 billion round of emergency funding, more than 1,500 regional businesses were served, with approved loans totaling more than $260 million. According to those polled, the majority of businesses had already received a disbursement. In this initial round, businesses served employ more than 30,000 individuals.

Experts from the world’s leading plasma companies have come together to create a new alliance aimed at treating the new coronavirus. Partners include CSL Behring, the third largest biotech company globally, currently underway with a 1.8 million SF expansion of its Kankakee, Illinois, production site.

If you’re anything like most businesses, you have become comfortable in your processes. Most businesses, however, are seeing dramatic shifts in their sales funnels right now. While many are holding on to the hope of normalcy, I propose that nothing will ever be “normal” again. What does this current sea change mean for you and your marketing strategy?