Professional Services Agreement - St Marys Womens Entrepreneurship Initiative - Spark Womens Business Accelerator Neighborhood Pilot

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eventually spin off into their own construction -related business. Our vision for the SPARK pilot in the Near Northwest Neighborhood is to accelerate a flywheel of small-scale development and small business growth by women, minority, and low to moderate -income entrepreneurs. After running three consecutive cohorts we anticipate the creation of a low -barrier business incubator in or near the former Ward Baking Company Building on Portage Ave. Small- business owners will be able to grow incrementally (or fail safely) in the incubator and over 3-5 years establish a pathway from the incubator into owner -occupied commercial or mixed -use space. Our efforts will dramatically amplify city efforts to promote and facilitate economic inclusion so that more South Bend residents can benefit from city revitalization. WEI's SPARK Women's Business Accelerator Pilot WEI is uniquely positioned to amplify neighborhood revitalization efforts by piloting a SPARK - inspired program embedded in the Near Northwest Neighborhood and potentially one on the westside of South Bend at the Latin American Chamber of Commerce. WEI will offer its traditional SPARK program with some new enhancements specifically designed to support neighborhood revitalization. Because of the SPARK Women's Business Accelerator's commitment to serving under-resourced women, a significant number of our African -American graduates live in divested neighborhoods and can be engaged specifically to utilize their business acumen for targeted neighborhood revitalization. The 2019 pilot would include: 1) Surveying targeted areas in the Near Northwest Neighborhood to identify current and aspiring business owners who would benefit from technical assistance and mentorship. 2) Running the 11-week accelerator in the Near Northwest Neighborhood. 3) Facilitating referrals and peer -support for small-scale development. 4) Study of best practices to develop a replicable model for use in other South Bend neighborhoods and cities throughout the Midwest. The steady success of WEI programming over the last nine years has brought increased community exposure and dramatically expanded our community and corporate partnerships. The Entrepreneurship Alliance of Michiana (TEAM) is a partnership of WEI, the North Central Indiana Small Business Development Center (ISBDC), and SCORE. All three programs have similar missions, helping small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in complementary ways: a ISBDC, which has a local office on the IU-South Bend campus, offers expert one-on-one advising and a robust network of resources.