| This is a historic day for our state. We've all battled hard together to beat back a global pandemic that has taken many loved ones, stretched our community resources and broken too many small businesses. Now as we emerge into a future that is certain to be profoundly different, it's important to reflect and respect the life-changing events we've all experienced, both personally and in our public lives. We know our businesses are deeply dedicated to reopening safely and ensuring the health of their employees and customers. Commerce remains committed to a strong economic recovery across all our communities – particularly those that were hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic. But our economic recovery remains tied to our success fighting COVID-19. We hope this milestone inspires anyone who can get their vaccine but hasn't done so yet to take that important step and help us become more resilient now and into the future. New programs and trusted partners help businesses and nonprofits move forward through reopening and recovery  Trust is one our core values at the Department of Commerce. One of the greatest lessons we've learned during this pandemic is the value of trusted relationships in communicating with and supporting all of the communities we serve. Small business owners face any number of hurdles in good times, but the past year and a half served to highlight and increase barriers to accessing available assistance programs for many in rural and historically disadvantaged communities. Language, technology, economic status and culture are some of the factors impacting success. Recognizing and addressing these and other barriers has been a key focus for Commerce and a driving force behind the growing network of trusted partners we've engaged to ensure fair and equitable access to funding and other assistance programs created to serve all of Washington's businesses and communities. These public-private partnerships will continue to play a central role as we begin reopening and reinvigorating our state and local economies. Small Business FlexFund offers very low interest recovery loans One key barrier to recovery is access to working capital for small businesses and nonprofits trying to develop and grow, especially those in low-income areas and led by women and people of color. Today, along with Gov. Inslee, we announced the Small Business FlexFund in partnership with several trusted local lending institutions. We designed the Small Business Flex Fund to provide more equitable access to growth capital for smaller, local businesses and nonprofits, ensuring a greater economic recovery for all of Washington. The Fund works with and through local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which serve under resourced communities and underbanked businesses the Small Business Flex Fund aims to help. Learn more at www.SmallBusinessFlexFund.org. SmartWA dashboard and decision tool is one of several Safe Start projects supporting small businesses through COVID-19  To help small business owners identify the safety protocols most likely to be important to customers, last week we launched a new SmartWA business decision support system and COVID-19 dashboard. The dashboard and decision support system was developed by Restart Partners and its partners ChoiceFlows and Tanjo.ai. The state Departments of Health and Labor & Industries also contributed to the development of the tool. We know business owners are committed to reopening safely, and they want their customers to feel confident about visiting in person again. This simple tool can help a business owner understand what is most important to their customers. We appreciate the work of our Safe Start partners to collaborate with diverse business owners and focus on the industries that have been hardest hit during COVID-19. See the SmartWA app and read more. |  | 
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