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As employers reopen across Kent County, personal protective equipment (PPE) will be a critical component in helping to protect employees, visitors, clients and customers from the spread of COVID-19. This program will provide PPE to qualifying small businesses and other employers, at no cost, to assist in reopening their operations.

Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-110, rescinding her Safer at Home order and moving the entire state to phase four of the MI Safe Start Plan.

Millennials, who make up roughly 11% of homeowners in cities with populations over 150,000, were found to make up 19.5% of Grand Rapids' home-owning population. This is the second highest concentration of home-owning millennials, only falling behind Clarksville, Tennessee at 23%.

In mid-May, The Right Place hosted the first webinar in its new monthly series, Navigate 2020. Guest speaker Rick Mattoon, senior economist and economic advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, provided insight and answered questions surrounding the anticipated economic recovery in the U.S. following the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed executive order 2020-96 to reopen retail businesses and auto dealerships by appointment statewide on Tuesday, May 26, as part of her MI Safe Start plan. The governor’s executive order also lifts the requirement that health care providers delay some nonessential medical, dental, and veterinary procedures statewide beginning on Friday, May 29.

Today, The Right Place, Inc., in collaboration with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), announced that medical device packaging engineering firm, Packaging Compliance Labs, LLC (PCL) will be expanding its current operations at 4334 Brockton Dr SE in Kentwood. In addition to a capital investment of $2.57 million, the company will bring 27 new jobs to the area.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently signed into effect Executive Order 2020-91, establishing safety measures reopening businesses are going to have to adhere to in order to return to business.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-92, allowing for the reopening, in two regions, of retail businesses, office work that cannot be done remotely, and restaurants and bars with limited seating. The two regions are both in the northern part of the state—specifically, MERC regions 6 and 8, as detailed in the governor’s MI Safe Start Plan to re-engage Michigan’s economy.

While the many changes and disruptions that came from the COVID-19 pandemic were not expected as we entered 2020, leaders in all industries have worked hard to restore our nation’s prominence and success as the world continues to respond and recover.

Michigan Women Forward, in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), New Economy Initiative (NEI), Michigan-based foundations, corporate partners, individual donors, and in collaboration with the SBA, has secured funding to provide recovery grants and loans to diverse entrepreneurs and small businesses from underrepresented groups in Michigan.