Comcast has announced that the Comcast RISE Investment Fund, providing $5 million dollars of grants to hundreds of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-owned, small businesses in five cities nationwide, including $1 million in Philadelphia and the City of Chester. Beginning on March 1 through March 14, eligible businesses in Philadelphia and Chester, in addition to Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Houston, can apply for a $10,000 grant at www.ComcastRISE.com. A total of 100 grants in Philadelphia and Chester, or 500 grants overall, will be awarded in May 2021. The Investment Fund is the latest extension of Comcast RISE, the multi-year, multi-faceted initiative launched in October 2020 that initially focused on black-owned, small businesses and then extended to BIPOC-owned to help those hardest hit by COVID-19.
The Comcast RISE Investment Fund is focused on small businesses who have been in business for 3 or more years with 1-25 employees. Businesses must be in the following geographic locations to be eligible: City of Philadelphia and City of Chester.

​Here are the cold hard facts. It is no secret that employers share the burden of healthcare costs, especially when it comes to chronic diseases. If your employees have these types of conditions, your costs are higher. Also, according to the Surgeon General, you can’t ignore the indirect costs that reduce workforce productivity and contribute to declines in labor force participation. For example, the average full-time worker with diabetes misses an estimated 5.5 workdays per year; unplanned absences for this disease cost U.S. employers $20 billion annually in lost productivity. The indirect costs of diabetes to employers may approach $90 billion per year.

By: Alex Rahn, Wanner Associates
On December 21st, the United States Senate and House of Representatives approved a $900 billion Coronavirus Relief Package.  President Donald Trump has indicated he will approve the legislation and has until December 28th to sign it.  
 
The package contains $600 stimulus checks for those who make under a certain income and $300-per-week for federal unemployment stopped at 11 weeks.
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The legislation also assigns $284 billion of the funds to a new round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). PPP eligibility is expanded for nonprofits, including 501C6 organizations which was a large push from the Chamber community.