“How to Support Local Business in Winter, NOW!”

In the midst of the pandemic, Main Streets and commercial centers around the world are working to rapidly reinvent themselves in an attempt to extend a lifeline to their struggling small businesses. Open streets, “streateries,” shared streets, expanded sidewalks, new bike lanes and more are popping up from city to town in an effort to save the lifeblood of their local economies and the heart and soul of their communities.

It’s time to get creative, if we want to bring customers back to our small business community and provide a safe social space for ourselves and our neighbors.* This can look like adapting current spaces to reflect this “new normal,” activating under-utilized spots in your community to create new spaces to gather, eat, and shop, or even just leveraging connections in your community to help small businesses collect the funds they need to help them stay afloat. In April of 2020, Patronicity launched a series of programs geared towards COVID19 relief for small businesses. Here’s what we found from our 242 small business campaigns, all varying in need, size, and services.

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