Precursor Grant Catalyzes Small Business Advisor Program

In 2017, Central Iowa Works (CIW), a workforce intermediary housed at the United Way of Central Iowa, was developing a strategy to improve the well-being of the small business community in Des Moines. They observed that small business was the absolute lifeblood of the economy in a mid-sized city like theirs, and that improving outcomes for workers would mean improving results for the small companies that employed them.