On December 8th at 2:30 p.m., the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance will host “Back to Business,” a disaster recovery and preparedness workshop tailored to small businesses at the Willis Noland Resource Center (120 West Pujo Street, Lake Charles, LA).
Held in conjunction with FEMA and the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute, the event is open to all local businesses. The goal is to provide information and resources to assist local economic recovery post-disaster as well as prior to the next disaster. 
The three hour technical assistance fair will kick off with an overview of participating government agencies and continue with a moderated group question and answer session. Representatives from the participating agencies will then retreat to tables where individuals can visit and gather more personalized information regarding business concerns.
Participating agencies include U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), FEMA Mitigation and Contracting Specialists.
“Back to Business” is free and open to the public. The event will focus on identified business concerns based on previous disasters such as assistance available for impacted employees and owners, loss of business, physical damage to facilities, insurance coverage, financial support, contracting and business opportunities, housing to help bring back employees and customers, environmental health issues, and more.
For more information, contact the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance at (337)433-3632.