To Our Small Contractor Community – Please Complete this Survey by April 30th, 2020 (deadline has been extended)!  Help us Understand and Advocate for Your Needs

As the administrator of the Alameda Contractor Technical Assistance Program (CTAP), Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) understands that you are experiencing a range of challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe impact on our communities, your business and your families.  For over 11 years, we’ve been a service provider to you and are well aware that small contractors have fewer options and resources to weather this crisis, both in the immediate moment and long-term.  We want to help identify and address the most urgent impacts on you, your business, and your family.  We are therefore shifting the focus of our services to help you address your most immediate and urgent needs, as well as provide crucial risk management guidance to our small contractor community.  We will use our resources and relationships with Alameda County and our Program Partners to help communicate and advocate for your most pressing concerns – those directly impacting your business, your employees and by extension, your families.

We know that one of the most likely urgent needs you will have is financial, and we are researching a range of Federal, State and local sources promoting financial assistance for small businesses.  We will be providing you information on what’s available, who’s eligible, and details on the application process for each resource we identify.  Because our Program offers you technical assistance, we will also assist you in navigating the application process.  Additionally, we are in the process of creating an online forum, the Of Like Minds – Contractor Community Forum, which will  provide a platform for us to share pertinent information with you – and for our contractors to share resources and information with each other – within and across regions throughout the state. We will also invite our public entity partners to access the forum to share project updates and other contractor and small business-related information.  This will allow you to receive updates in real-time about construction project updates, worksite safety regulations and procedural changes, best practices and other vital information to support your business through this crisis and beyond.  As soon as we have the forum up and running, we will send you an invitation to create an account so that you can immediately have access to this virtual contractor community.  While we must all practice social distancing right now to stay safe, we are committed to using technology and other means to continue to keep our contractor community connected, informed and resilient.

Meanwhile, please click on the “Take the Survey” button in the header above to complete our critical-needs assessment survey by or before April 30th, 2020.  Your responses will help us understand any immediate challenges your business is facing, as well as impacts to your personal well-being and stability (as employees of a small business ourselves, we know the line between the two is very thin).  The information you provide will allow us to respond to our public agency program sponsor, Alameda County, as they seek timely impact data in order to make informed decisions on how best to assist our small contractor partners at this crucial time.  Again, please complete and submit the survey via the link above.  The sooner we get responses, the sooner we can help advocate for you and provide you with risk management guidance or other support.  You will also be hearing from a Contractor Technical Assistance Program (CTAP) representative by phone to check in on you and see what we can do to help.

COVID-19 NEWS & RESOURCES

COVID-19 RESOURCE LINKS

SERVICES

Our Contractor Development & Bonding Programs:
City and County of San Francisco
City of Los Angeles
Los Angeles County – Metro
 

NEWSLETTER