Office of Entrepreneurship Education

The Community Navigator Pilot Program ended in May 2023.

The American Rescue Plan Act authorized SBA to establish the Community Navigator Pilot Program to make grants to, or enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with, private nonprofit organizations, SBA Resource Partners, states, tribes, and units of entities.

The program was designed to provide high-quality recovery services and technical assistance with pandemic relief programs to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Recovery services included offering help with:

• Financial assistance and access to capital
• Contracting and procurement
• Marketing, operations, business development, and exporting
• Industry-specific training

SBA encouraged programming that focused on supporting communities where English is a second language, and that offered technical assistance in languages other than English.

SCORE is the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, with 10,000 volunteer mentors in approximately 250 chapters nationwide.  Since its founding in 1964 as a resource partner for the U.S. Small Business Administration, SCORE has helped more than 11 million current and aspiring entrepreneurs start, grow or successfully exit a business through mentoring, resources and education.

SBA's Learning Platform features free online courses to help entrepreneurs maximize their time with quick access to business development information.

OEE works with a number of partners to share educational materials focused on money management and financial literacy for small business. Check www.MyMoney.gov for information offered by numerous federal agencies.

T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined is an executive-level training series intended to give ambitious small business leaders a challenging opportunity to accelerate their growth through targeted training led by motivating leaders in small business development.