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Nearly nine months have passed since the DCU Center in Worcester was forced to cancel all of its events in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, and now with the state emergency field hospital restarting in the arena in December, a full-fledged reopening doesn’t seem any closer.

Colleges in New England were already on the lookout for an expected drop in high school-age graduates locally, and struggling in some cases to balance high costs with keeping education affordable for students.

Restaurants are bringing in far less money for food and drink during the coronavirus pandemic – and it’s showing both the hit the industry has taken this year as well as the financial toll declining tax revenue will have on cities and towns.

From the high-end Natick Mall to Solomon Pond Mall to the Mall at Whitney Field and elsewhere, retail plazas already struggling with closing chains are now facing an even more uncertain future because of the pandemic.

When it comes to main streets in Central Massachusetts, town officials uniformly agree: A healthy main street is where foot traffic is king.

Like many nonprofits in 2020, The Shine Initiative had to rethink its annual gala fundraiser this October, in the wake of social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Restaurants help attract other businesses, and they are vital in keeping workers at those companies out and about past working hours.

The challenges of running a small nonprofit are certainly compounded by the coronavirus. Funding opportunities have been diverted to COVID-19 relief funds, but the needs of our participants remain constant.

What can we – as leaders of an organization – do to address employee stress? It can seem like an overwhelming task, but experts say much can be accomplished by simply opening lines of communication and regularly considering team members’ status and circumstances.