Meet Melissa Bailey, a recent 2020 MPA graduate from Villanova’s online Master of Public Administration program! She currently serves as the Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of Florence, Alabama. Melissa also recently participated in the 2020 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition on Sustainable Cities and Communities at the University of Albany, and she was a member of the first place team that moved onto the global judging round. We are very proud of Melissa’s accomplishments! Read more about her participation in the NASPAA competition here.
In this spotlight, Melissa shares in her own words how her experiences in the Villanova MPA program informed her decision-making process to create “Florence First,” an initiative to support small businesses in Florence, Alabama during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to launching “Florence First,” Melissa was conducting research on how funding from the CARES Act could be used to assist small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Florence anticipated receiving some additional funding under the community development block grant (CDBG) program, although they did not know how much at the time. Melissa shared, “We did receive an additional allocation based upon the same formula used to calculate the annual funds. However, information on municipalities that had used CARES Act funding to assist small businesses was non-existent.”
“So… I did what every Villanova-educated individual would do… I created a program from scratch.
“Florence First” is a relief grant that offers special economic assistance to small businesses to help with paying their mortgage or lease, utilities, payroll administration, and business inventory expenses. “Florence First” will provide cost reimbursement grants to as many small, local businesses as possible to help bridge the gap during this extraordinary time.”
Melissa reflected on deciding between providing a grant or a loan to the small businesses within her community. “The choice to provide grants was easy. During the development of “Florence First,” I felt that many businesses may already be burdened with loans and simply could not afford another payment. I developed a simple, business-friendly application as a fillable PDF. Applicants are asked to focus on two months of eligible expenditures that are spelled out in the application. I designed the application, eligibility, and evaluation criteria inclusive of small, local businesses as possible. Every facet of the program is on a webpage I built on our City’s website to ensure complete transparency in the process – even the evaluation criterion is provided. Lastly, I held a webinar walking all participants through every question on the application. I had over 200 participants in the webinar.”
Melissa shared how the Villanova MPA program influenced her decision-making process in implementing “Florence First.” “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Villanova with regard to this program. Why? Because the development of this program required abundant amounts of courage, faith, perseverance, collaboration, strategic planning, communication, leadership, complex decision making, and the application of sound public administration values and ethical obligations. Could I have put this together prior to earning my MPA from Villanova? Perhaps. Would it have been reflective of the values above? I doubt it.”
Melissa launched “Florence First” on Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at an 11:00 am press conference and has already received numerous calls and support from public administrators at the city, county, and state levels “praising the methodology and intentional planning evident in the program.” As she moves forward in the next stages of her initiative, Melissa goes back to the skills that she learned in the Villanova MPA program. “My thoughts continuously go back to my Villanova education, and I thanked God every time for placing me on the path to the greatest school in the land.”
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