Two new rounds of funding will help create Denver jobs, support local businesses and improve neighborhoods.

The Denver Office of Economic Development recently announced that funding is available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Community Development Block Grant-Recovery for business lending projects and community and neighborhood improvements.

A total of $1,366,613 in funding is available to projects involving business start-up and expansion. The funds are available through a direct business lending program that increases the Revolving Loan Fund and the Neighborhood Business Revitalization Loan program.

In addition, $850,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding will be available for neighborhood revitalization projects, which may include block beautification, installation and upgrade of parks and playgrounds, community centers and tree planting.

"In shaping our CDBG-R strategy, we placed an emphasis on making as many funds as possible available to our small business community," OED Executive Director Andre Pettigrew said. "We have seen a very strong need for greater access to capital among our businesses, and we're fortunate to have these extra funds to leverage within our community to create jobs and stimulate the economy."

Proposals for funding are due October 29. So far, Denver has received $55 million in federal stimulus funding.

Many people are hoping the jobs created from the funding will help revive Denver's economy, which, despite a decrease in unemployment, has continued to lose jobs.

During August, the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area saw its unemployment rate decrease from 8 percent to 7.4 percent, which was lower than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.7 percent.

The area had a total non-farm employment of 1,206,800 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,208,900 workers during July and a 4.6 percent decrease from last year.

Labels: Denver jobs