As I’ve caught up with a few of you over this last week, it has been so encouraging to hear how you are working to support your communities in innovative and creative ways. You all are amazing!

I know that for a lot of us this is a hard time. Each week our communities are facing more closures, layoffs, and uncertainty. I wanted to take a moment to encourage you that the work we are doing is so valuable right now. As new needs come up in your community, we want to hear how our team can help.

Here are creative solutions our network has shared with me:

• We love Create Birmingham’s idea of hosting two weekly calls with their community members—Coffee with Jessica and Whine with Jessica. This might be a really helpful model to use in your community. Check it out here!
• Our friends over at NDSU found a great way to support local businesses and give college students real-world experience. They have connected tech-savvy students with local businesses that needed to move sales or services online. Learn more here.
• By popular request we will be hosting a call next week to give you a chance to share some of the ideas you have tried in your community or share some of the challenges you have faced. Keep an eye out for a calendar invite!

Also, click here for a roundup of events, articles, and podcasts that you might want to check out and share with your community of entrepreneurs and business owners.

As we look to the next week and the weeks after that please know that our team is here for you and working hard to support your communities.

As always and even more so now, please call or email if there is anything we can do!

Molly and the CO.STARTERS Team