Veteran small businesses get aid from SBA

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced the award of grants to 10 local SBA Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) to increase entrepreneurial assistance to veterans. The grants will provide approximately $1 million to fund programs for veterans that promote business ownership and provide services to small businesses dealing with the deployment of key personnel overseas.

Each SBDC receiving funds will promote increased coordination of services to veterans, and will use multimedia tools to connect veterans through distance learning and customized online business counseling by providing services to reach the local veteran business community. Five of the centers were previously awarded grant funds to provide these services and will now receive a second year of funding. Five centers will receive grant funds for the first time.

Five SBDCs will receive a second year of funding. They are located at the Research Foundation at the State University of New York, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Kentucky Research Foundation in Lexington, the University of Texas at San Antonio and George Mason University in Virginia.

Five grant recipients will receive awards for the first time. They are the SBDCs located at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the University of Southern Maine, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore. They were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants based on the range of services they could provide to veterans.