LOWVILLE — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) on Sept. 8 held its 2023 annual meeting, titled “Building Belonging in the New Economy.”

The afternoon event focused on “belonging, what it is, what it looks and feels like, and how creating welcoming spaces directly benefits businesses, communities and the people they serve.”

ANCA had invited community members; small-business owners and employees; nonprofit professionals; and others interested in “building welcoming and belonging” in New York’s North Country to attend.

ANCA held the meeting and reception at the Tug Hill Estate in Lowville in Lewis County.

ANCA describes itself as an independent, nonprofit corporation with a “transformational approach to building prosperity” across northern New York. Using “innovative strategies” for food systems, clean energy, small businesses, and equity and inclusion, ANCA says it “delivers targeted interventions that create and sustain wealth and value” in local communities.

About the gathering

The meeting sought to build on the economic-development organization’s vision — “a New Economy that Works for All” — and recent collaborative efforts to increase awareness and skills related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in North Country businesses and communities.

“Over the last several years, our board and staff have been mindful and intentional about centering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in our work,” Elizabeth Cooper, ANCA executive director, said. “Building belonging is integral to ANCA’s New Economy approach which focuses on growing an economy that provides equitable access and opportunity for people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.”

Tiffany Rea-Fisher, director of ANCA’s Adirondack Diversity Initiative, facilitated a community conversation that included a lineup of speakers with different perspectives on belonging.

Speakers shared personal and professional stories before taking questions from audience members and opening a discussion about what belonging means to them.

The speakers included Scott Gilbert, owner of Tug Hill Artisan Roasters; Tamara Jolly, a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) educator who attended SUNY ESF’s Ranger School; and Emily Russell of North Country Public Radio, ANCA told CNYBJ in a Sept. 11 email.

ANCA wanted all attendees to leave with “actionable ideas to incorporate principles of belonging” in their businesses, organizations and communities.

“Belonging goes hand in hand with safety, and exploring the multitude of ways that people can feel unsafe in our communities is a worthwhile venture,” Rea-Fisher said in a release. “We who call this region home have so much to offer, and it is important that we are generous with those assets and not work from a place of scarcity or fear.”

ANCA leadership, including directors of the organization’s small business, food systems, clean energy, and Adirondack Diversity Initiative programs, provided updates for meeting attendees.

The annual meeting’s focus on belonging follows a series of programs delivered to small businesses, organizations, and individuals on workplace communication and DEIB practices. Through virtual and in-person events, ANCA says it aims to demonstrate how “welcoming and belonging can help businesses retain existing and gain new clientele, improve their bottom line and build resilience for the future.”

The annual meeting location, Tug Hill Estate, is a business, farm winery, distillery and event venue that transitioned to new owners Jonathan and Taren Beller in 2021. It happened with support from ANCA’s Center for Businesses in Transition (CBIT) and local assistance from CBIT partner Naturally Lewis, ANCA noted.

WATERTOWN — The Watertown Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has combined with the Onondaga SBDC as part of a pilot program.

The effort seeks to “increase shared resources and opportunities” for small businesses in the Central New York region, per an SBDC announcement. 

Under the program the Watertown SBDC is now the Watertown Outreach Center, Kevin McGoldrick, director of marketing and communications with the New York SBDC, tells CNYBJ in an email.

The Onondaga SBDC operates at Onondaga Community College, and the Watertown Outreach Center is run from Jefferson Community College.

The partnership and the combined regional center “leverage the collective expertise” of both advisory teams to boost support for small-business clients throughout the region, New York SBDC said. 

The locations and service footprint for each of the Watertown and Onondaga locations, as well as outreach centers and satellite locations, will remain the same. However, Robert Griffin, director of the Onondaga SBDC, will lead the combined team of advisors, the New York SBDC said.

The Watertown SBDC director position “had been vacant for several months,” according to McGoldrick. The combination didn’t lead to any layoffs, and the New York SBDC hopes that it may lead to additional staffing growth moving forward, he adds.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to help lead this effort and drive new opportunities, programming, and possibilities for small business owners across the Central New York region,” Griffin said. “The combined team of advisors from Watertown to Onondaga bring an incredible wealth of experience to the table.”

As of now, the Onondaga SBDC has five full-time business advisors and one open coordinator position, and the Watertown Outreach Center has two full-time business advisors, McGoldrick tells CNYBJ. 

The combined advisory team has more than 250 years of collective business ownership and management experience, with backgrounds ranging from agriculture, manufacturing, human resources, marketing, international trade, energy, retail, and hospitality, among others.

Both the Watertown and Onondaga Small Business Development Centers started in 1986 and, with their combined experience, have served over 70,000 businesses across the region. Those efforts helped the companies invest more than $935 million in the area’s economy and creating or saving over 34,000 jobs, per the announcement. 

The combined group of small business advisors will primarily serve Jefferson, Lewis, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oswego, and Seneca counties, the New York SBDC said. 

New York State Office of General Services (OGS) Commissioner Jeanette Moy recently announced that a pair of Central New York businesses were certified as service-disabled veteran-owned businesses (SDVOB).

The New York OGS Division of Service-Disabled Veterans’ Business Development (DSDVBD) issued the certification to KW Bradley Associates, LLC, a cybersecurity and drone-services provider in Manlius, and One Cut Above, LLC, an excavation and landscaping company in Fulton.

The two LLCs were among eight newly certified businesses across the state, announced by the OGS on July 28. The DSDVBD was created by New York State government in May 2014 through enactment of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Act. The state had 1,137 certified businesses, as of July 28.

For a business to receive certification, one or more service-disabled veterans — with a service-connected disability rating of 10 percent or more from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (or from the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs for National Guard veterans) — must own at least 51 percent of the company. Other criteria include: the business must be independently owned and operated and have a significant business presence in New York, it must have conducted business for at least one year prior to the application date, and it must qualify as a small business under the New York State program. Several more requirements also need to be met.