SHARON Grant revives program
The program targets those who can't secure entrepreneurial funding.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Business Impact Center of the Mercer County Housing Authority is getting a new lease on life, thanks to a Weed and Seed grant.
The authority, using federal drug elimination grant money, launched a small business incubator and training program at its Federal Street Community Center in 1998.
The goal, said L. DeWitt Boosel, authority executive director, was to help authority tenants start their own small businesses.
The project was able to help about 25 people develop business plans and a number of them went on to start their own businesses, Boosel told the authority board of directors Wednesday.
The program lost its director several years ago and was waning until the authority formed a partnership with the Northwest Regional Planning and Development Commission, Boosel said.
Together, they set up the Micro Enterprise Development Program at the impact center in the Quinby Street Resource Center and applied for funding through the Farrell/Sharon Weed and Seed program, which targets an area along the shared border of the two cities for revitalization.
Funding
Boosel said the project was able to secure a first-year grant of $75,000 and will be eligible to apply for three more annual grants ranging from $75,000 to $100,000 each.
Thomas D. Lawrence, Micro Enterprise Development manager, said the program targets individuals "normally left out of the loop" when it comes to securing entrepreneurial funding.
"I've already met some outstanding individuals," Lawrence said of growing interest in the new program. "I truly believe we can make an impact in this area."
Boosel said the Micro Enterprise effort will concentrate in the designated Weed and Seed area but can also be linked to the authority's HOPE VI community rebuilding effort in the Spearman Avenue area of Farrell.
The housing component of that project is well under way and the Micro Enterprise program can provide an economic development component, he said.