The Com­mu­ni­ty Nav­i­ga­tion Pilot Pro­gram (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.

On a nation­al basis and focused on five region­al ser­vice mar­kets, USPAACC, head­quar­tered in Wash­ing­ton DC, has enlist­ed fif­teen trust­ed, cul­tur­al­ly, and tech­ni­cal­ly knowl­edge­able part­ners to do tar­get­ed out­reach to under­served Asian Amer­i­can Pacif­ic Islander (AAPI) com­mu­ni­ties and their entre­pre­neur­ial com­mu­ni­ty. USPAACC as the Hub and Tier 1 Grantee, will man­age and lead our net­work of Spokes in Cal­i­for­nia, Geor­gia, Illi­nois, New Jer­sey, and Texas. The USPAACC des­ig­nat­ed CNPP staff, and the Spoke des­ig­nat­ed staff have decades of expe­ri­ence work­ing with and pro­vid­ing out­reach, advo­ca­cy, and train­ing to the AAPI and oth­er under­served com­mu­ni­ties. Nation­al­ly, because many AAPI small busi­ness­es are oper­at­ed by new immi­grants, the lan­guage bar­ri­er is still a major deter­rent to their under­stand­ing of social pro­grams, tech­nolo­gies and what the Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion has to offer. This ded­i­cat­ed group will work togeth­er in the Hub and Spoke mod­el as com­mu­ni­ty ambas­sadors with in-lan­guage capa­bil­i­ties in Eng­lish, Can­tonese, Man­darin, Tai­wanese, Fujianese, Japan­ese, Kore­an, Viet­namese, Fil­ipino and Hin­di. Each Spoke has unique and spe­cial­ized capa­bil­i­ties and are ground­ed with­in their com­mu­ni­ties pro­vid­ing excel­lent work to small busi­ness­es for many years. 

More infor­ma­tion about Spokes →