Through the Community Navigator Pilot Program, the Small Business Administration is engaging with states, local governments, SBA resource partners, and other organizations like the MSCNPP in outreach for small businesses in underserved communities. MOVE encompasses fourteen counties in Mississippi. In the target region, 26% of residents live in poverty and the unemployment rate is 8.4%. To combat
these negative outcomes, MOVE offers a multifaceted approach to provide access and services to the most vulnerable. To begin, the MOVE Collaborative consists of primary players advancing a fresh approach to community and economic development. Each player recognizes that their job is identifying and connecting federal relief resources and community assets to market demand to build lasting livelihoods, always ferreting out marginalized people, places, and firms in both the action and the benefits. MOVE focuses on all the critical ingredients in the target region’s system that either advance or impede prosperity — the integrated range of social, economic, health and environmental conditions needed for small businesses to thrive. This HUB, (CSLC), along with eight powerful SPOKES, will serve 7,140 unique clients – targeting underserved and under-represented business. Together, the SBA and CSLC will help Mississippi MOVE into a brighter future.
