Sep 17

Sep 17 Getting Folks Back to Work

Employ Prince George’s Relaunches the Covid-19 Rapid Re-Employment Grants (RREG) Initiative for Businesses

Walter Simmons

Putting the county’s unemployed residents back to work is a priority as local businesses are still dealing with the effects of covid-19 and finding financial support to stay open. To the rescue is Employ Prince George's (EPG), Prince George's County's principal workforce development entity, who recently relaunched the Prince George's County COVID-19 Rapid Re-Employment Grants (RREG) Initiative. Operating under EPG's Covid-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program, this will continue to support businesses and unemployed residents over the next three years.

”We had tremendous success assisting employers with recruiting unemployed Prince George’s County residents in 2020,” says Employ Prince George’s Director of Business Services Alexander Austin of the initial success of the grant program. “We had 28 employers hire 80 unemployed Prince George’s County residents in 2020. With each employer averaging 3 new hires per grant award and receiving an average of 18,000 per award.,” he says.

In 2020, Employ Prince George's launched the Prince George's County COVID-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program serving over 600 residents and distributing more than $540,000 in Rapid Re-Employment Grants by the end of the year to businesses helping unemployed Prince George's County residents regain employment during the pandemic.

Prince George’s County stepped in to aid restaurants and local businesses harmed by the pandemic. In 2021, through funding from Prince George's County Government, Employ Prince George's plans to distribute over $5,000,000 to businesses in need and who are hiring unemployed Prince George's County residents.

“The relaunch of the Rapid Re-Employment Grants Initiative is a major step in our efforts to rebuild our local economy as we continue to navigate our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

"This time last year, thousands of Prince George's County residents were unemployed, and thousands of businesses were struggling to survive through the New Year. This year, businesses are struggling to fill positions, overcoming more than a year of lost revenue while still trying to provide great services/products to their customers. To assist the Prince George's County economy while recovering from the recession caused by the pandemic, Prince George's County Government is funding EPG's Rapid Re-Employment Grant Initiative and EPG's COVID-19 Workforce Development Recovery Program to simultaneously help struggling businesses and unemployed Prince George's County residents." states President and CEO, Walter Simmons.

There is still a need for the effort. “The Rapid Re-employment Grant Initiative is necessary for the economic stability of Prince George’s County,” Austin says. “Currently, Prince George’s County has 39, 000 unemployed Prince George’s County residents and over 16,000 job openings. The Rapid Re-employment Grant Initiative is necessary to bridge this gap between the 39,000 unemployed and 16,000 employers seeking to hire Prince George County residents.”

When asked how the success of the program will be measured going forward, Austin replies: “Through the American Rescue Plan Act we have a larger investment to the initiative (over $4 million). Our goal is to award close to 300 businesses and place over 500 unemployed Prince George’s County residents in Full or part-time employment.”

For businesses interested in applying for the COVID-19 Rapid Re-Employment Grants, please visit the Employ Prince George's website, www.EmployPG.org/rapidgrants, to apply, or email the Employ Prince George's Business Services Department at BusinessServices@co.pg.md.us today.