WEST PLAINS, MO – The Ozarks Small Business Incubator (OzSBI) has been chosen as a “spoke” in the Community Navigator Pilot Program, an American Rescue Plan initiative designed to reduce barriers that all small businesses, including those owned by disadvantaged groups such as veterans, women, and those from rural communities and communities of color, often face in accessing critical support. The Community Navigator Pilot Program provides $100 million in funding to 51 organizations that will work with hundreds of local groups (spokes) to connect America’s entrepreneurs to government resources so they can recover and thrive.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized building our small business ecosystems back better so that all of our entrepreneurs have a fair shot at achieving the American dream of business ownership,” said US Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman. “We need to meet businesses where they are with resources to start, grow and be resilient, and the Community Navigator Pilot Program will power a trusted network of community partners to connect America’s entrepreneurs with the SBA. The program’s Community Navigators will develop strong relationships with deeply trusted community-based organizations that will tap into one-on-one, targeted support from programs designed to help them create jobs and drive innovation.”
“The unprecedented hyperlocal and national coalition-building approach of the Community Navigator Pilot Program will catalyze small businesses,” said Mark Madrid Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development. “These distinguished grantees will help supercharge our U.S. small business recovery. Simultaneously, they will help close historic and current resource gaps and advance equity, which remains one of our top priorities.”
About the Community Navigator Pilot Program:
Utilizing a “hub and spoke” model, the SBA’s Community Navigator Pilot Program will help level the playing field for America’s entrepreneurs, especially our underserved women, people of color, veterans, and rural and low-income communities. Grantee “hubs” will serve as centralized, lead organizations, and will incorporate “spokes” like the Ozarks Small Business Incubator to leverage partnerships with deeply trusted community-based organizations to help small businesses navigate government resources and tap into critical resources.
The Ozarks Small Business Incubator is one of five rural “spokes” providing business assistance in the Rural Delta, which covers communities located in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana and Teneessee. Rural LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), a community development support organization founded in 1995, is the “hub” organization overseeing the five rural spokes. As a spoke, OzSBI works directly with Rural LISC to meet specific metrics on businesses assisted, workshops taught and loans made. OzSBI has been ramping up their operations since January 2022 to support more local business owners throughout its seven county service area through the Community Navigator Program.
The overall goal of the Community Navigator program is to provide outreach and support to businesses in underserved communities free of charge. To do this OzSBI has added Business Development Specialist, Autumn Shirley, to its staff. Autumn and our diverse group of professional business mentors provide one-on-one business counseling to startups and existing small businesses. OzSBI is also providing more outreach, speaking at chamber events most recently in Thayer, Birch Tree, and Mountain Grove, with the goal over the next year to attend a chamber meeting or civic event in each community OzSBI serves. Additionally, OzSBI has increased the loan amount of the OzSBI Microloan Fund to $50,000 in order to provide more financial assistance to both new and growing businesses. To learn more about OzSBI and the Community Navigator program, please attend our Virtual Launch Party on August 11, 2022 at 11 to 11:45 am.All attendees will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a $50 gas card. Registration is required to attend at ozsbi.com/launchparty.
