Greater Jamaica Local Development Company

See schedule owithin our target market, gjldc provides loans to qualified commercial prospects that have been unable to obtain financing from traditional lenders. We often participate with other lending institutions in financing projects that are beyond gjldc's financial limitation. We measure our success by the dollar amount of loans disbursed, the dollar amount of private investment leveraged, the number of jobs created or retained and other performance objectives. Recognizing the need for urgent action in response to the covid crisis, gjldc and its affiliate gjdc, significantly increased emphasis on providing our free suite of technical assistance to small businesses in our service geography, with a special focus on mwbe's. Specifically in 2018 and 2019, we provided service assistance (through canvassing, community engagement events and one-on-one assistance to about 500 entities per year). By contrast, in 2021 as a result of covid's impact on small businesses, we provided direct assistance to 1189 businesses. Our services resulted in business funding and/or grants secured of $5,076,722. Throughout the pandemic, we partnered with federal, state, and Local governmental units to provide focused assistance and guidance on access to newly available business resources.this dedication continued in 2022 and 2023 as our service geography of mostly minority owned entities recovered in very slow fashion from pandemic restrictions. These businesses require special attention since they typically did not have adequate cash reserves, lacked access to expertise, and could not move their businesses online during the lockdowns.