Reflecting on the SBA’s commitment to minority-owned businesses during Black History Month

By John Fleming SBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator

Over the past two years, thanks to laws and policies championed by the BidenHarris Administration, the U.S. Small Business Administration has made incredible progress reaching minority and underserved entrepreneurs. Under SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas-Guzman, our little federal agency continues to offer big support for existing businesses and startups through our traditional products and services as well as new opportunities promised in the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The SBA is delivering on those promises. Just last year, Administrator Guzman signed a Strategic Alliance Memorandum with the National PanHellenic Council, or “Divine Nine,” to help bring more SBA resources within reach for underrepresented communities, furthering our commitment to build equity and close historic wealth gaps that have held back America’s minority entrepreneurs, their families and communities for generations.

I recently attended the opening of the Baltimore Metropolitan Women’s Business Center at Morgan State University, one of many historically Black colleges and universities partnering with the SBA to grow women’s business ownership. Currently, SBA has 10 centers affiliated with HBCUs in North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Maryland, all with a history of educating African Americans and service to their communities, continuing the SBA’s policy of investing in those who invest in others.

The SBA is also assisting grantees of the BidenHarris Administration’s Community Navigator Pilot Program, an American Rescue Plan initiative reducing barriers to critical support for small business owners, including veterans, women, rural communities, and commu- nities of color. Community Navigator provides $100 million in funding to 51 “hubs” to work with more than 400 local community “spokes” to connect entrepreneurs with federal, state, and local resources.

The SBA’s T.H.R.I.V.E.

Emerging Leaders

Reimagined provides upand-coming small business leaders with tools, knowledge, and access to the best and the brightest minds in economic development to help them accelerate their growth and help them become competitive in an increasingly global economy.

These are just a sampling of the good work the SBA and the BidenHarris Administration are doing for America’s entrepreneurs. Learn more regarding loan eligibility, programming and services by visiting www.sba.gov.