Moore-Hemann

LA GRANDE — La Grande Main Street Downtown is launching a program aimed at connecting businesses to resources throughout the area and region.

The brown-bag style lunch-and-learn series, Business-Resource Connection, will begin meeting monthly on the third Wednesday at noon starting Wednesday, April 20.

All sessions will be at the Ignite Center, 104 Depot St., which will be hosting the presentations. The Ignite Center provides small business resources, classes and referrals.

“One of the goals of launching this new series is to highlight the wide range of resources we have locally that businesses can leverage to really elevate their performance, some of which businesses may not even have exposure to,” said Taylor Scroggins, executive director of La Grande Main Street Downtown, now also known as Main Street.

Timothy Bishop, the city of La Grande’s economic development director and chair of the Main Street Economic Vitality Committee, said this workshop series provides an important opportunity for local business owners.

“Small business owners spend a lot of their time just running their business and aren’t always aware of the support organizations that are there to assist them,” he said. “The Economic Vitality Committee hopes this monthly series will help build more awareness about the small business support organizations and services that are available in La Grande and help business owners connect to those resources.”

The series is similar to the former Hot Topics series Main Street hosted many years ago with a newly revamped format and programming, according to a Main Street press release. The Economic Vitality Committee is leading the effort to organize the series. Each month, a different organization will give a presentation designed to help businesses develop a better understanding of and connections to the resources available to them locally. Representatives of organizations, including the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association and WorkSource Oregon, will be among those giving presentations.

WorkSource is a partnership of public and private organizations that work together to provide a variety of services for job seekers. The Eastern Oregon Visitors Association is a group of organizations striving to market and present Eastern Oregon as destination for visitors to enhance the regional economy.

Suzannah Moore-Hemann, the project’s chairperson, like Bishop, wants the series to help businesses to make connections.

“Businesses are increasingly looking to expand their access to resources to maintain optimal performance and function, but need to do so strategically,” Moore-Hemann said. “This series will provide businesses the opportunity to develop new contacts and relationships, and a better understanding of the resources available to them.”