Although formed to help drive economic development, the Butler County Growth Collaborative finds its work a little bit different these days.

Including members from several countywide stakeholders, the three-year-old partnership is helping residents and businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic, including creating a pandemic resource page on the county's website.

“If you think about it, this pandemic has been a disruptive force to our economic development,” said Mark Gordon, the county's chief of economic development and planning who chairs the collaborative.

Among other things, Gordon said businesses affected by the pandemic were becoming inundated with emails from various agencies offering help and resources, and many became overwhelmed.

“The idea is to allow for one place for people to look for data,” he said of the county resource page. “We're trying to disseminate information that is relevant and timely.”

The page, which is frequently updated as resources become available, includes links to apply for unemployment benefits, to employers who are hiring, to apply for a small business loans or to peruse webinars for business owners.

It also includes links to Gov. Tom Wolf's plan for reopening the state, business consulting services, information for unemployed residents on health care options, and information on accessing crisis and food support.

The collaborative also sends two emails each week to businesses and others that could be helped by the information.

On Monday, Gordon sent the second of two surveys created by the collaborative for businesses.

The first, sent about six weeks ago, asked for baseline information from business owners.

“We wanted to check the pulse of our business community,” Gordon said, adding that “To a large degree, it's on life support right now.”

Using the results of the most current survey, Gordon hopes the collaborative can offer help to businesses struggling to survive the pandemic.

Gordon said results from the latest survey could include: how to reconfigure inside dining to accommodate social distancing, asking municipalities to create ordinances that would allow outside dining, having mentors go into a business to help in areas where the owners do not have expertise, and other actions.

He said the hospitality industry was almost immediately devastated by the protocols necessary because of the pandemic.

“So how do we help them survive the storm?” Gordon asked.

Collaborative members include representatives from several sectors, including colleges, community development, transit and redevelopment authorities, local and regional chambers of commerce, tourism and workforce development.

Gordon hopes the collaborative can help all businesses and residents endure and recover from the pandemic in the best way possible.

“Today, with all of this going on, it's really incumbent upon leaders to stand up and lead, but also provide hope and it can't be a false sense of hope,” Gordon said.

The pandemic resource page can be found at butlercounty.gov and clicking on “Butler County COVID-19 resources” at the top of the page.