SBA awards $1.12 million to resource partners

Funding will sustain entrepreneurship training for transitioning service members.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has entered into a cooperative agreement with America’s Small Business Development Centers, SCORE and the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) to provide a combined $1.12 million of funding to sustain and expand the resource partners’ participation in SBA’s Boots to Business program.

The program provides training to transitioning service members and their spouses pursuing business ownership as a post-military service career. Funding for the agreement will reimburse SBA resource partners for the two-day “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” courses delivered on military installations worldwide as part of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The course helps prepare transitioning service members for business ownership and connects them to SBA resources in their local communities.

Boots to Business is the entrepreneurship training track within the DOD’s TAP program. It began as a pilot in 2012, expanded nationally in 2013, and was appropriated $7 million in the fiscal year 2014 federal budget for expansion and sustainment. Since January 2013, over 16,000 transitioning service members have participated in the two-day “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” class on 165 military installations worldwide.

For more information about opportunities for veterans, visit the SBA website.

Source: SBA