2022 Exemplary Advocate: Sen. Mark Kelly

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly was instrumental in making the Small Business Administration’s Community Navigator Pilot Program possible. Through his leadership and advocacy, this new funding was a small but critical component of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Under the two-year program, LISC Phoenix is partnering with four local Community-Based Organizations to provide one-to-one technical assistance and support to BIPOC entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses throughout the Phoenix Metro region.

“I’ve spoken to small businesses in every corner of Arizona. Far too many of them, especially minority-owned businesses, have been unable to get the support they need,” said Sen. Kelly. “It’s why I fought to include the Community Navigator Program in the American Rescue Plan because it will help meet small businesses right in their communities, including providing assistance for Spanish-speakers, and get them the relief they need to keep their doors open and workers on payroll.”

At the beginning of the year, Sen. Kelly met with U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman in Mesa, where the two highlighted LISC Phoenix’s work under this program by visiting and discussing Arizona’s economic recovery with small business owners. They began their visit at Moreno’s Mexican Grill, a Latino-owned restaurant in Mesa which has been working with LISC Phoenix through our community partners at RAIL CDC, and were greeted by community advocates, LISC Phoenix’s Executive Director Terry Benelli, and LISC’s CEO Lisa Glover.

To date, local Community Navigators have connected with and provided assistance to more than 262 businesses in and around the Valley and helped secure more than $4 million in grant and loan funding as well as administered more than 675 counseling hours for small businesses under the Community Navigator program. None of this would be possible without insight and steadfast advocacy from Sen. Kelly.