The EDC has been actively assisting businesses throughout Kandiyohi County since the pandemic emergency was declared in mid-March of this year.
First, it created the COVID-19 Business Assistance Loan (COBAL) Program that provided up to $5,000 in zero percent loans to affected businesses. Second, in May, the EDC provided small grants of $325 to all 88 home childcare providers in the County. Third, with the help of funding from the Southwest Initiative Foundation, it created the Immigrant Business
WILLMAR — The Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, along with other local and regional partners, continues to look for new ways to help businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
“We are using the resources we have to try to address some of the emergency funding,” said Aaron Backman, EDC executive director.
A new grant program, this one geared toward new immigrant businesses in Kandiyohi County, was approved by the EDC Joint Operations Board
In 1998, when John Keller joined the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) as an immigration attorney, he would often drive to Worthington, where hundreds of low-income immigrants and refugees depended on the organization’s free legal services.
“We would do workshops, answer a bunch of questions, do in-takes and represent whoever we could help,” said Keller.
Then one day in 2006, a year after he was named ILMC’s executive director, federal immigration agents raided a meatpacking
WILLMAR—A group of immigrants from east Africa has formed a nonprofit organization to help members of the Willmar community learn more about each other.
The Community Integration Center, located at 201 Fifth St. S.W. in downtown Willmar, is open to everyone, seven days a week.
The center will act as a welcome center for people who have just moved to Willmar. Its founders hope they can help break down some cultural barriers, too. The services offered there will be free.
In addition to offering help
