As a crucial source of employment in local communities, small businesses have an important role to play in advancing economic opportunity and job quality. Yet even before the pandemic, time and resource constraints could make it challenging for small business owners to invest in workers. The overlapping crises of the past year have magnified these challenges, creating new stress and uncertainty for small businesses – while also demonstrating that the wellbeing of their workers is essential to business success. 
Around the country, innovative community development finance and economic development organizations are pursuing strategies to support small businesses to navigate the pandemic and strengthen job quality for workers. During the webinar, you’ll hear from leaders using these approaches – and forging innovative partnerships with local organizations – to encourage small business practices that are good for workers, good for business, and good for communities. Panelists include Amanda Blondeau (Chief Strategy Officer, Northern Initiatives; Job Quality Fellow, The Aspen Institute), Tim Gamory (CEO, BronXchange), and Bulbul Gupta (President and CEO, Pacific Community Ventures), with moderator Amanda Newman (Senior Project Manager, Economic Opportunities Program, The Aspen Institute). 
Hear panelists discuss how they are adapting job quality-focused strategies during the pandemic and their priorities for recovery and beyond.
This webinar is the eleventh in our Job Quality in Practice series. The Job Quality in Practice series is designed to support practitioners across fields – including workforce development, economic development, capital deployment, policy, worker advocacy, and business – to address job quality in their work. Webinars share updates on current conditions and priorities as well as actionable tools and approaches. We also seek to highlight leading practitioners’ work and create connections across disciplines.We are grateful to Prudential Financial for its support of our Job Quality in Practice webinar series and our ongoing efforts to advance a job quality field of practice.
The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy. We recognize that race, gender, and place intersect with and intensify the challenge of economic inequality and we address these dynamics by advancing an inclusive vision of economic justice. For over 25 years, EOP has focused on expanding individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity. For more information, visit our website at as.pn/eop. Learn about new events and activities by joining our mailing list (as.pn/eopmail) and following us on social media (as.pn/eopsocial).