RICHMOND, Va. -- More than a dozen Central Virginia small business owners have received $10,000 grants from Verizon.
Lekesha Broussard, who owns The Village Children and Family Services, said the grant made a big impact on her company.
She used the money to improve their equipment for telehealth cases.
"We were able to give out some Chromebooks, we were able to also start utilizing loaner Wi-Fi devices because we also found some of our clients either their devices wouldn't work or there wasn't enough memory," Broussard said. "So, we were able to provide them with Wi-Fi devices that they could use to communicate with our workers."
Broussard called the mental toll the pandemic has taken on families "tremendous."
The grant put her agency in a better position to help.
"So having that capability to have access to a mental health counselor at any time, it was a really, really, big deal," she said. "But it also allowed us to give our staff a little bit of a bonus, and to do some things for them to help them with their mental health as well."
Dawn McNellis, with Verizon, said the company was committed to helping small businesses.
"Really when you start thinking about how we kicked it up a notch with not only grants, but things like come back coaches where we've given our expertise to small businesses. We've enlisted others outside of Verizon to help us work with these businesses," McNellis said. "Getting America back to work is really about getting these small businesses up and running. And we just want them to know that we are in it with them."
Click here for information about applying for a small business grant.