Who: Must be a small business located in California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, or Texas

Deadline: Varies

The Com­mu­ni­ty Nav­i­ga­tion Pilot Program for small businesses con­nects under­served Pan Asian Amer­i­can busi­ness­es with crit­i­cal busi­ness ser­vices and assis­tance pro­grams. USPAACC is the ​“Hub” pro­vid­ing sup­port through a net­work of 14 orga­ni­za­tions, known as ​“Spokes” that deploy com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates to work with small busi­ness­es locat­ed in Cal­i­for­nia, Geor­gia, Illi­nois, New Jer­sey, and Texas.

The CNPP was estab­lished by the Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan Act of 2021. The SBA launched the CNP Pro­gram to strength­en out­reach to under­served busi­ness­es by part­ner­ing with orga­ni­za­tions with deep roots in their com­mu­ni­ties. This approach was designed to help the small busi­ness­es, with a focus on those owned by vet­er­ans, women, and social­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­taged indi­vid­u­als — includ­ing in rur­al and urban com­mu­ni­ties that had been hit the hard­est by COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and severe eco­nom­ic impacts. The pro­gram is com­prised of a lead ​“Hub” at the cen­ter of a net­work of ​“Spoke” orga­ni­za­tions that deploy com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates to work with small busi­ness­es dur­ing eco­nom­ic recov­ery. Recov­ery ser­vices can include finan­cial assis­tance, access to cap­i­tal sup­ports, con­tract­ing and pro­cure­ment assis­tance, mar­ket­ing, oper­a­tions, and busi­ness devel­op­ment, export and import­ing, and indus­try spe­cif­ic train­ing, among oth­er areas of tech­ni­cal assis­tance to aid busi­ness­es in sta­bi­liza­tion and expansion.

CNPP offers various programs and assistance financial support, contracting and procurement, marketing operations, business development, and industry-specific training.