Centers of Excellence

 

 

The Pennsylvania Small Business Development was awarded a CARES Act funding grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small-business owners. Nine out of 16 centers prepared proposals to build capacity to provide specific services to all small businesses in Pennsylvania. Funding was set aside to award these proposed “Centers of Excellence” in special recognition for creative programming and collaboration to provide industry sector specific specialized programs and services to industries and core areas most severally impacted in the Commonwealth. 

 

 

 

 

 

These nine centers created partnership initiatives to expand specific industry sector education, training and business advising to address the issues faced by small businesses as a result of the pandemic:

 

 

• Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh SBDC's are collaborating to assist small businesses with migration to e-commerce sites and to enhance SEO to drive more traffic to their websites.

 

 

• Widener University and Duquesne University SBDC’s will provide enhanced industry specific guidance to the life sciences and health related industry.

 

 

• Penn State University, Clarion University and The University of Scranton SBDC’s are joining to create specialized services for the agriculture industries leveraging host institution resources and partnerships including the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences and Penn State Extension.

 

 

• Temple University and Gannon University SBDC’s are collaborating on specialized services for the tourism/hospitality industry sector.

 

 

• Widener University SBDC will offer specialized bilingual assistance for Latino entrepreneurs and members of diverse business populations.

 

 

• Lehigh University SBDC will present GrowthWheel training to assist businesses with strategic internal operations and innovate their business model.