SBA Provides Funding to Support Expansion of Veterans Business Outreach Centers
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is expanding the network of Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC) through cooperative agreement funding to establish up to seven new VBOCs.
VBOCs are directed by Public Laws 110-186 and 106-50 to participate in transition assistance for servicemembers separating or retiring from U.S. military service and serve as Boots to Business (B2B) instructors, follow-on providers and integrators of business assistance.
The SBA is inviting organizations—including educational institutions, private businesses, veterans nonprofit community organizations, as well as federal, state and local agencies to apply for a cooperative agreement to establish and operate a VBOC.
The focus areas for the development of the new VBOCs include Georgia, North/Central Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Southern California, Hawaii, and New England.
Beginning Feb. 23, 2016, eligible organizations in the above states may apply for a cooperative agreement to establish and operate a VBOC by visiting www.grants.gov. The application deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET on March 29, 2016. All applications must be uploaded in the grants.gov portal; applications sent through any other media will not be accepted or evaluated.
Applicants who have questions about the cooperative agreement may submit those questions to janet.moorman@sba.gov. Questions received by 12:00 p.m. EST on 26 February will be answered during a conference call at 3:00 p.m. EST on March 2, 2016. The questions and answers addressed in the conference call will be posted as an attachment to this website following the calls conclusion. A second conference call to address any remaining questions will be held at 3 p.m. EST on March 16, 2016. Questions for the second conference call must be submitted via email to janet.moorman@sba.gov by 12:00 p.m. EST March 11, 2016. To join either conference call, please use the dial in and access code provided below.
Dial In: 888-858-2144 Access Code: 5817583
Currently, 14 VBOCs exist as an SBA resource partner providing counseling, training, and mentoring services to the veteran, active duty, National Guard, Reserve and military spouse communities interested in starting or expanding their small businesses.
In 2015, VBOCs counseled more than 15,000 clients, provided training to 46,000 entrepreneurs and conducted 700 Boots to Business training courses. Within a year, the VBOCs supported the creation of more than 300 businesses and helped business owners receive up to $24 million in capital.
The high demand for entrepreneurship training by the service member community made it necessary to establish more VBOCs, and hire additional counselors.
Each year SBA assists more than 200,000 veterans, reservists and service-disabled veterans to start and grow their small businesses. To learn more about additional opportunities for veterans available through the SBA, visit www.sba.gov/vets.