Amendment to PSA - St Marys College Womens Entrepreneurship - Spark Womens Business Accelerator

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EXHIBIT A The Program WEI seeks to support neighborhood redevelopment in divested neighborhoods and those most affected by blight reduction efforts lead by Mayor Pete Buttigieg's "1,000 Homes in 1,000 Days" campaign. Neighborhood planning sessions are generating inspired visions for in -fill of vacant lots and restoration of small commercial nodes. The city's partnership with Opticos Design and the Incremental Development Alliance has produced new toolkits to facilitate small- scale neighborhood development. However, the most active participants in these training sessions have been well-resourced (educated with access to capital) white males. Legacy residents, especially female -headed households, have yet to fully embrace the opportunities for wealth -creation through small-scale development. Incremental development intersects with entrepreneurship in several important ways. 1) Owning income -producing property can increase resilience, financial self-sufficiency, and generational wealth for low to moderate -income families. 2) Small business incubators and accelerators embedded in neighborhoods can help home -based and neighborhood businesses grow through increased visibility, technical support, business mentorship and access to social and financial capital. 3) Incubators and accelerators create a pipeline for small business expansion into owner -occupied commercial or mixed -use properties as neighborhood commercial nodes are restored or expanded. 4) Small neighborhood development projects provide opportunities for unskilled labor (or those with barriers to employment) to skill -up and 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 Woen'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 WEI will offer its traditional SPARK program with some new enhancements specifically designed to support neighborhood revitalization. 3