A new LISC brief offers insight and guidance to stakeholders looking to forge robust small business ecosystems in historically under-invested communities, the same communities that have also borne the brunt of the pandemic's economic fallout.

By Bill Taft

Since the onset of the pandemic, LISC has equipped 16,000 small business owners with relief and resilience grants. But to foster opportunity and long-term resiliency for all entrepreneurs who confront entrenched inequities, including people of color, women, immigrants and refugees, and people with lower incomes and wealth, we need a robust universe of small business “ecosystems”: the network of capital, services, and supports that every enterprise needs to get on its feet and grow.