Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship Awarded SBA Resiliency and Recovery Grant

Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship – WCEC Women’s Business Center

“We are thrilled to be awarded this SBA grant which will allow the WCEC to continue to be a go-to resource for women and BIPOC entrepreneurs. This is a testament to our dedicated staff who go above and beyond to serve the needs of small businesses in underserved areas.”

CHATHAM, N.J. (PRWEB) August 31, 2021

The Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship was awarded the Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership WBC Resiliency and Recovery Demonstration grant as part of a 2.7 million dollar fund disbursement to support business development activities. The fund will be broken down into individual grants in the amount of $200,000 awarded to 14 Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) in 13 select states to assist with programming and services.

The WCEC Women’s Business Center plans to use funds to continue to provide essential educational resources, technical assistance and access to Covid relief funding for women and BIPOC-owned small businesses. The grant will also enable the WCEC to extend contracts for its new Covid-19 PR Manager and Program Manager and to develop E-commerce programs to help small business owners level up their technical skills, in order to pivot and thrive in an increasingly digital business world. These e-commerce programs will provide added value to the WCEC’s already robust roster of classes and webinars covering hot topics on Covid Relief Funding, PR and Marketing, Starting a Business, Bookkeeping and Building Business Credit.

The WCEC Women’s Business Center was 1 of 14 organizations selected out of a network of 136 centers on the basis of its proven ability to serve the needs of women and BIPOC entrepreneurs impacted by the Covid crisis. The SBA notes that the business centers that were awarded grants demonstrated that they would offer innovative approaches to support women business owners adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the WCEC was chosen as a shining example of a women’s business center that provides business counseling, training, technical and financial skill development, comprehensive business assessment, and mentoring services to women and BIPOC entrepreneurs looking to start or grow an existing small business.

WCEC Executive Director Rana Shanawani credits the WCEC team with this accomplishment. “We are thrilled to be awarded this SBA grant which will allow the WCEC to continue to be a go-to resource for women and BIPOC entrepreneurs. This is a testament to our dedicated staff who go above and beyond to serve the needs of small businesses in underserved areas. The grant also allows us to staff up and invest in innovative programs to help small business owners compete in a virtual world and help close the digital divide.”

WCEC Board President Alyce Hackett adds, “This grant will help the WCEC continue its mission to support small businesses representing marginalized and diverse communities by providing critical services and tools that aim to empower entrepreneurs to pivot, recover and thrive. “

About Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship

The Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship (WCEC) is a registered 501c3 nonprofit. As a Small Business Administration Resource Partner and Women’s Business Center, the WCEC’s mission is to help small businesses succeed. WCEC works with women and minority-owned businesses from the start up stage to existing small businesses looking to scale up by providing educational resources, business counseling, career training, technical assistance and COVID-19 relief loan and grant assistance.
For more information on WCEC, go to https://www.wcecnj.org/

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