The efforts of the Southern Mississippi Planning and Development District of Gulfport got a boost last week when the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the organization a $1 million grant.
The funds, announced last week in a news release, will provide a cash infusion for the organization’s Revolving Loan Fund – a program that helps supplement small businesses and entrepreneurs in the region. According to the organization’s estimate, the project is expected to help create 168 jobs, retain 59 jobs and spur $4.8 million in private investment.
“The Department of Commerce and its bureaus have been working diligently to aid communities across the country which have been devastated by natural disasters,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in the news release announcing the grant. “This Revolving Loan Fund will provide critical support to businesses throughout Mississippi, empowering local entrepreneurs all over the state.”
The Southern Mississippi Planning and Development District is a regional planning organization that supports development and a variety of services in 15 southern Mississippi counties along with 38 municipalities, its website states. The grant, awarded through the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, is from funds designated in the federal budget for disaster relief.
Both of Mississippi’s U.S. senators – Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker – said the grant is welcome news for the Gulf Coast.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.