SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The top official of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says many of its advisors have become like social workers for small businesses, making sure that they can connect businesses to all the resources that are available. SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman spoke at the dedication ceremony for Syracuse University’s National Veterans […]
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The top official of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says many of its advisors have become like social workers for small businesses, making sure that they can connect businesses to all the resources that are available.
SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman spoke at the dedication ceremony for Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center (NVRC). The NVRC includes the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), which will use a $5 million federal award to serve as a community-navigator hub to aid small businesses.
“We know that IVMF will be successful in doing that and that’s what SBA’s mission is all about… trying to make sure that we can help businesses start, to grow, and to be resilient,” Guzman said in her remarks.
IVMF was selected as a Tier 1 partner as a part of the SBA’s American Rescue Plan initiative.
She spoke during National Veterans Small Business Week. The U.S. has 1.76 million veteran-owned businesses, according to Guzman.
Besides IVMF, the Rochester Economic Development Corporation (REDCO) was selected as a Tier 3 partner and will be awarded $1 million.
The SBA is administering the funding for the community-navigator program. Nationwide, the community-navigator pilot program will provide $100 million in funding to 51 organizations to connect America’s entrepreneurs to government resources.
The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit small businesses hard over the last year, especially veteran, rural, minority-owned, and small mom and pop shops that may not have the same resources as larger well-connected businesses.
The community-navigator program is designed to address these concerns by helping reduce barriers to government programs for underserved entrepreneurs to help jump-start recovery and growth.
IVMF is “honored” to have been selected for the program, Mike Haynie, Syracuse University vice chancellor and IVMF founder and executive director, said.
“The IVMF team is excited about the opportunity to leverage our experience, relationships, and passion for serving veterans and their families, to help America’s veteran-owned businesses grow, thrive, and prosper,” said Haynie.
Program hubs will serve as “centralized, lead organizations,” and leverage partnerships with community-based organizations to help small businesses navigate government resources and tap into resources to “recover and grow.”
Specifically, Syracuse University’s IVMF hub is responsible for coordinating community-based, economic recovery for veteran-owned small businesses. The grant will allow the IVMF to support veteran-owned and military-spouse-owned businesses with entrepreneurship training, small-business technical assistance, loan preparation, capital readiness, corporate and federal contracting, and networking.
“We’re so honored to be a partner of IVMF because they are incredible stewards of our funding to be able to better support veterans in our communities and we look forward to the economic impact that’s going to be made through that partnership and through that grant programming that we’ll see over the next couple of years,” said Guzman.