Government Contracting
NOWaccount CEO, Lara Hodgson, stopped by the studio to talk about government contracting for small businesses. I also hosted 3 experts who serve our community by helping children and adults in need of foster care, and help/treatment for developmental challenges and/or mental illness. Tom Russell and Lori Brickman of Creative Community Services, and Pat Strode of the Georgia Chapter for the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) joined us to talk about the vital role they play for children in foster care, particularly those who face those developmental issues or mental illness.
Lara discussed a recent event where an SBA representative shared information about doing business with the federal government. Did you realize there’s over $100 BILLION dollars of federal contracts available? And that there’s ~23% are earmarked for small businesses who are able to fulfill the need for goods and services?
We talked about what to do to prepare to do business with the government, where to go to register, where to go for information on contracts available, as well as resources available that can facilitate accepting government contracts even if invoices are paid slowly.
I also learned that there are over 11,000 children in foster care in Georgia. The folks from Creative Community Services and NAMI, came by to talk about how they serve our community by working to help this vast population of children in need of loving, safe environments, along with supportive care they require as well if they’re facing developmental challenges or mental illness.
We talked about how important getting treatment and medication is for patients who are dealing with mental illness is. We also discussed how important it is for first responders to be certified to be able to identify and handle persons suffering from mental illness rather than simply assuming they’re criminals.
Tom explained that many of these children lack any real positive role models or mentors
The groups have regular events to raise funds to enable them to provide support and treatment for patients in need. Be sure to visit their websites for more information on events as well as opportunities to serve with your time as volunteers or mentors.
Special Guests:
Lara O’Connor-Hodgson, CEO of Nowaccount Network Corporation 
Tom Russell, Director of Therapeutic Foster Care at Creative Community Services 
Lori Brickman, Volunteer for Creative Community Services and NAMI
Pat Strode, CIT Program Administrator, National Alliance on Mental Illness 
