Community Outreach Coordinator: An Interview with Lise Howson

Q: What is the Community Outreach Coordinator Position?

A: The Community Outreach Coordinator is a new, part-time position created to help reduce barriers that underrepresented and underserved entrepreneurs often face in accessing programs they need to start, recover, or grow their business. The Community Outreach Coordinator helps connect this group to the assistance they need when they may not realize that assistance is available.

Q: Who would be considered an underrepresented or underserved entrepreneur?

A: Targeted businesses include women, minority, and veteran owned businesses, as well as businesses in rural areas, just to name a few.

Q: How is this position funded?

A: The CEDC received a grant from the Community Navigator Pilot Program, an American Rescue Plan Initiative. Through this, the SBA funded 51 different recipients. As the hub, the CDFA (Community Development Finance Authority) was awarded $2.5 million to disperse to five spokes throughout the state of NH.  It is a two-year program through which each of the spokes in the state has a Community Outreach position. The CEDC’s spoke is partnered with Grafton Regional Development Corporation. (GRDC).

Q: What will you be doing on the day to day as the Community Outreach Coordinator?

A: I will be working with key stakeholders in the community to ensure they are aware of the programs we offer at CEDC.  For example, commercial bankers, real estate brokers, selectmen, chambers of commerce, other community leaders; anyone who may have access to business owners or may be in a position where they are aware of someone starting or growing their business. The goal is for these stakeholders to then refer the entrepreneurs to CEDC where we can provide them access to what our program offers.

Q: What happens after a business is connected to you?

A: We will meet with them to determine what their needs are and how we can help them.  That may fit into some of the programs we already have in house and when that is not the case, we have additional funding to connect them with outside resources.

Q: Why is this position so important?

A: This position fills a huge gap. Prior to this, CEDC was an organization of one staff member. A lot of what I’ll be doing, I simply didn’t have the time to do in my previous position. This will allow me to be out in the community, meet with people and share the information.  It’s a deeper dive into the community than we’ve ever been able to do in the past.

Q: How does this ultimately benefit the community?

A: The benefit to the community is providing the services, funding, and capital that business owners need to start, grow or improve their business.  Resident will benefit from having new businesses in the community and business owners will benefit because we can offer them services, financing and funding they never knew existed.

Q: A business should contact you if (fil in the blank).

A: If they need business counseling, marketing, operations, business planning, strategy development, connections to training, skills development, access to capital, any support they need because if we can’t provide it, we know who can.

Interested in talking to Lise about your business needs? She can be reached at lhowson@coosedc.org or 603.530.1218.