University of Michigan-Flint finalist for minority business award
Posted by Beata Mostafavi August 27, 2009 10:39AM
Categories: Flint - News
FLINT, Michigan -- Nearly 30 University of Michigan-Flint business students recently got a real dose of their future careers while helping local businesses.
And now, UM-Flint is being recognized for establishing new program Community One, a "business think tank" for the community that allowed the students to work with 10 area businesses and institutions to help them expand into new products or new markets.
The program has earned UM-Flint a finalist spot for the 2009 Michigan Minority Business Development Council Corporation of the Year-Education and Government Entities Award.
"We are pleased to be selected as a finalist for this award," said Jack Helmuth, dean of UM-Flint's school of management, in a prepared statement.
"The school of management has the expertise to help move forward the economic development of the Flint area, and Community One is the perfect vehicle to launch that talent,"
The accomplishments of Community One were showcased in a special video that highlighted the research of the students. The video can be viewed on YouTube.
UM-Flint is among more than 20 firms nominated for special recognition. The winner will be announced at the annual Michigan Minority Business Development Council Awards dinner on Sept. 29 in Detroit.
"Community One provides the perfect opportunity for students to get experience in the real world that will help prepare them for a business career," UM-Flint purchasing director Greg Snyder said.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
First Friday of Service - Volunteer Opportunity
What: UM-Flint and Kettering University are partnering to clean-up University Ave. in preparation for the Crim.
When: Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Meet at the Urban Alternative House (two blocks west of the Northbank Center) if you need directions, please call Gary at 810-424-5458.
Calling all volunteers – Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni!
Volunteer at with fellow classmates and our Kettering friends to clean-up University Ave. in preparation for the Crim.
Feel free to bring a friend - Together we can make a difference!
Please park in the WSW parking lot and walk across to the Urban Alternative House.
¬
Please register by contacting Gary Ashley in the Center for Civic Engagement at (810) 424-5458 or gaashley@umflint.edu by Wednesday, August 5th, 2009.
First Friday of Service volunteer hours count toward the Michigan Service Scholars and Commitment to Service volunteer recognition programs at UM-Flint.
***Please note, we will leave the Urban Alternative House 15 minutes prior to the events start time.
Gary Ashley
Program Coordinator
University of Michigan-Flint
Institutional Advancement
432 N. Saginaw St., Suite 1001
Flint, MI 48502-1950
Phone: 810-424-5458 NEW!!!
Fax: 810-424-5484 NEW!!!
gaashley@umflint.edu
When: Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Meet at the Urban Alternative House (two blocks west of the Northbank Center) if you need directions, please call Gary at 810-424-5458.
Calling all volunteers – Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni!
Volunteer at with fellow classmates and our Kettering friends to clean-up University Ave. in preparation for the Crim.
Feel free to bring a friend - Together we can make a difference!
Please park in the WSW parking lot and walk across to the Urban Alternative House.
¬
Please register by contacting Gary Ashley in the Center for Civic Engagement at (810) 424-5458 or gaashley@umflint.edu by Wednesday, August 5th, 2009.
First Friday of Service volunteer hours count toward the Michigan Service Scholars and Commitment to Service volunteer recognition programs at UM-Flint.
***Please note, we will leave the Urban Alternative House 15 minutes prior to the events start time.
Gary Ashley
Program Coordinator
University of Michigan-Flint
Institutional Advancement
432 N. Saginaw St., Suite 1001
Flint, MI 48502-1950
Phone: 810-424-5458 NEW!!!
Fax: 810-424-5484 NEW!!!
gaashley@umflint.edu
Tech Town recognized for assisting businesses
July 21, 2009
National Business Incubation Association recognizes TechTown with designation
TechTown is getting a little love from the folks at the macro level, receiving a Soft Landings International Incubator designation from the National Business Incubation Association.
The Detroit-based business incubator is being recognized for its own Soft Landings program. That program helps businesses based out of state and even the country set up shop in Detroit.
Nancy Cappola, director of TechTown's Soft Landings program, calls the National Business Incubation Association designation a "huge stamp of approval."
"It really says the program is special," Cappola says. "We have a unique approach."
The Soft Landings offers translation services, office space in TechTown, legal support, plus advice on how to navigate local government and finding access to capital.
The National Business Incubation Association helps advance business incubation and entrepreneurship. It has given out only 13 other similar designations across the country since 2005.
Source: Nancy Cappola, director of TechTown's Soft Landings program
Writer: Jon Zemke
National Business Incubation Association recognizes TechTown with designation
TechTown is getting a little love from the folks at the macro level, receiving a Soft Landings International Incubator designation from the National Business Incubation Association.
The Detroit-based business incubator is being recognized for its own Soft Landings program. That program helps businesses based out of state and even the country set up shop in Detroit.
Nancy Cappola, director of TechTown's Soft Landings program, calls the National Business Incubation Association designation a "huge stamp of approval."
"It really says the program is special," Cappola says. "We have a unique approach."
The Soft Landings offers translation services, office space in TechTown, legal support, plus advice on how to navigate local government and finding access to capital.
The National Business Incubation Association helps advance business incubation and entrepreneurship. It has given out only 13 other similar designations across the country since 2005.
Source: Nancy Cappola, director of TechTown's Soft Landings program
Writer: Jon Zemke
Student Incubator in Ann Arbor
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090721/GEO01/907219994
Student-run incubator hopes to breed next wave of tech moguls
By Dustin Walsh
TechArb, a UM student-run incubator, is an extension of the RPM-10 program for student entrepreneurs led by RPM Ventures and the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship.
Under Google's imposing shadow on East Washington Street in Ann Arbor, more than two dozen University of Michigan students click-clack on keyboards and discuss third-party software, iPhone applications and angel investors. They are all attempting to grow technology-based startups and to see their big ideas succeed as part of the student-run incubator, TechArb.
TechArb, with its 29 budding entrepreneurs representing 11 companies, is the upshot of UM senior Jason Bornhorst's involvement in the entrepreneurial summer internship program, RPM-10.
RPM-10 is a 10-week technology-based accelerator, created by Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm RPM Ventures and the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship.
Now in its second year, RPM-10 selects three UM student-run startup companies a year and provides them with mentorship and capital to build their company.
The Center for Entrepreneurship provides each company with up to $25,000 of funding. The idea is to have a product and customers by the end of the program.
“We talk a lot about turning Michigan's economy around,” said Marc Weiser, managing director for RPM Ventures. “You can spend a lot of time in the classroom, but the best way to learn about entrepreneurship is to get out there and start a company.”
Thomas Zurbuchen, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, said the center spent about $70,000 on RPM-10 companies in 2008.
Ann Arbor Spark also provided financial support for some of the companies, said Skip Simms, executive director for the business accelerator, although, he declined to share details.
Bornhorst, 22, participated in last year's RPM-10 program. However, his appetite for startup glory wasn't realized as his Web-based company, Campusroost Inc., couldn't secure advertising revenue.
But he wasn't discouraged. In fact, he approached RPM Ventures and the Center for Entrepreneurship, with a group of fledgling student entrepreneurs, who called themselves Maize Ventures, and the need for office space.
The group received a portion of the 30,000 square-foot basement office space in the adjacent parking garage to the McKinley Towne Centre, which houses Google. With a site secured, TechArb became an extension of the RPM-10 program.
TechArb companies received rent-free space from May through September, courtesy of Ann Arbor-based real estate firm McKinley Inc.
Weiser is the son of McKinley founder Ron Weiser and currently serves on the firm's board of directors.
Bornhorst, who's in UM's computer science engineering program, started the tech company Mobil33t L.L.C., which resides at TechArb. The company released the free iPhone mobile application DoGood on June 7. The application encourages users to commit a specific good deed each day.
It's not an overly complex application, but it's popular. Since its June launch, the application has been downloaded by almost 43,000 iPhone users at press time. It has also been featured in Forbes and The New York Times.
Bornhorst said the program doesn't generate revenue for Mobil33t, as it was designed to build exposure for the company. Mobil33t is a bootstrap company and has not received outside funding.
Brett Wejrowski, a TechArb co-founder, launched the Web application development firm The Wojo Group, when he was 18. He's 23 now.
His other company, Carrier Mobile L.L.C., operates out of the TechArb offices and is part of this summer's RPM-10 program. Phonagle L.L.C. and Shepherd Intelligent Systems are also part of the RPM-10 program and housed at TechArb.
Carrier Mobile developed GPS-enabled smart phone software to aid truck drivers in automatically logging their driving hours. The company is still in the development phase and has not produced any revenue.
Wejrowski, also a senior in UM's computer science engineering program, said TechArb's strongest asset is that it provides the opportunity to collaborate with fellow participants.
“It's great to be able to get advice from other students that go through the same things,” Wejrowski said.
Bornhorst called TechArb an entrepreneurial fraternity.
“Collaboration is one of the biggest things that happen here,” he said. “You may have a down week, but when you come down here and see 30 others with the same troubles; it picks you up and keeps you going.”
Zurbuchen of Center for Entrepreneurship calls TechArb a “beehive for entrepreneurs” and said the entrepreneurial mindset is the most important value the university can provide students outside of its primary curriculum.
“We need people with an entrepreneurial mindset to address the problems we have within Michigan, within the U.S.,” he said. “TechArb will hopefully become a core support mechanism for student entrepreneurship — and, eventually, faculty entrepreneurship — on the Michigan campus.”
For now, TechArb is an entrepreneurial experiment for the 11 companies, RPM Ventures, UM and McKinley. If the students find it useful and the university sees it as successful, TechArb could become permanent.
The TechArb entrepreneurs are currently working with RPM Ventures on a proposal for UM.
Zurbuchen said he thinks the university can sustain TechArb in its current location for under $300,000 a year, depending on staffing needs. He said the university would likely leave TechArb at its current McKinley-owned location, opposed to moving it on campus, at least in the short-term.
“My feeling is that it's working where it is,” he said. “It's really about what happens with the newly acquired Pfizer area. If it's going to be an entrepreneurial center, of course, we'll want to be near it.”
Don Reimer, director of the Lear Entrepreneurial Center in the College of Engineering at Lawrence Technological University, said all of the state's universities are trying to develop strong entrepreneurs.
“The entrepreneurial minds in Michigan are now taking leadership roles within the state, and now we're competing globally, so the mindset, in terms of innovation, is very important to the economic development in Michigan,” he said. “I think the university (UM) would be wise to take a good look at what these kids are doing.”
Lawrence Tech does not currently have a student-run incubator, Reimer said, but the university offers an entrepreneurial internship program where selected students work with local entrepreneurs.
Wejrowski said the TechArb residents are cataloging data in an attempt to formalize the benefits. But, he said, success is the best — and easiest — way to secure funding.
“The biggest thing that can happen to move this forward is for one of these companies to take off,” he said. “Then, we can tell the university they started here at TechArb.”
Facebook was launched from a Harvard University dorm room. Michael Dell founded Dell Inc. while attending the University of Texas. Weiser hopes TechArb's gifted entrepreneurs can rise to tech mogul status.
“It will definitely help raise the profile of Michigan as an entrepreneurial university,” he said. “Fifteen years ago Larry Page was no different than these kids are today.”
Larry Page is the 26th richest person in the world, worth $12 billion, according to Forbes. He grew up in Lansing and graduated from UM with a bachelor's in computer science. He's the co-founder of Google.
“Five years from now, when Michigan has the next Dell or Facebook,” Weiser said. “People won't talk about how it started in a dorm room; they'll talk about how it was started at TechArb.”
Student-run incubator hopes to breed next wave of tech moguls
By Dustin Walsh
TechArb, a UM student-run incubator, is an extension of the RPM-10 program for student entrepreneurs led by RPM Ventures and the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship.
Under Google's imposing shadow on East Washington Street in Ann Arbor, more than two dozen University of Michigan students click-clack on keyboards and discuss third-party software, iPhone applications and angel investors. They are all attempting to grow technology-based startups and to see their big ideas succeed as part of the student-run incubator, TechArb.
TechArb, with its 29 budding entrepreneurs representing 11 companies, is the upshot of UM senior Jason Bornhorst's involvement in the entrepreneurial summer internship program, RPM-10.
RPM-10 is a 10-week technology-based accelerator, created by Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm RPM Ventures and the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship.
Now in its second year, RPM-10 selects three UM student-run startup companies a year and provides them with mentorship and capital to build their company.
The Center for Entrepreneurship provides each company with up to $25,000 of funding. The idea is to have a product and customers by the end of the program.
“We talk a lot about turning Michigan's economy around,” said Marc Weiser, managing director for RPM Ventures. “You can spend a lot of time in the classroom, but the best way to learn about entrepreneurship is to get out there and start a company.”
Thomas Zurbuchen, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, said the center spent about $70,000 on RPM-10 companies in 2008.
Ann Arbor Spark also provided financial support for some of the companies, said Skip Simms, executive director for the business accelerator, although, he declined to share details.
Bornhorst, 22, participated in last year's RPM-10 program. However, his appetite for startup glory wasn't realized as his Web-based company, Campusroost Inc., couldn't secure advertising revenue.
But he wasn't discouraged. In fact, he approached RPM Ventures and the Center for Entrepreneurship, with a group of fledgling student entrepreneurs, who called themselves Maize Ventures, and the need for office space.
The group received a portion of the 30,000 square-foot basement office space in the adjacent parking garage to the McKinley Towne Centre, which houses Google. With a site secured, TechArb became an extension of the RPM-10 program.
TechArb companies received rent-free space from May through September, courtesy of Ann Arbor-based real estate firm McKinley Inc.
Weiser is the son of McKinley founder Ron Weiser and currently serves on the firm's board of directors.
Bornhorst, who's in UM's computer science engineering program, started the tech company Mobil33t L.L.C., which resides at TechArb. The company released the free iPhone mobile application DoGood on June 7. The application encourages users to commit a specific good deed each day.
It's not an overly complex application, but it's popular. Since its June launch, the application has been downloaded by almost 43,000 iPhone users at press time. It has also been featured in Forbes and The New York Times.
Bornhorst said the program doesn't generate revenue for Mobil33t, as it was designed to build exposure for the company. Mobil33t is a bootstrap company and has not received outside funding.
Brett Wejrowski, a TechArb co-founder, launched the Web application development firm The Wojo Group, when he was 18. He's 23 now.
His other company, Carrier Mobile L.L.C., operates out of the TechArb offices and is part of this summer's RPM-10 program. Phonagle L.L.C. and Shepherd Intelligent Systems are also part of the RPM-10 program and housed at TechArb.
Carrier Mobile developed GPS-enabled smart phone software to aid truck drivers in automatically logging their driving hours. The company is still in the development phase and has not produced any revenue.
Wejrowski, also a senior in UM's computer science engineering program, said TechArb's strongest asset is that it provides the opportunity to collaborate with fellow participants.
“It's great to be able to get advice from other students that go through the same things,” Wejrowski said.
Bornhorst called TechArb an entrepreneurial fraternity.
“Collaboration is one of the biggest things that happen here,” he said. “You may have a down week, but when you come down here and see 30 others with the same troubles; it picks you up and keeps you going.”
Zurbuchen of Center for Entrepreneurship calls TechArb a “beehive for entrepreneurs” and said the entrepreneurial mindset is the most important value the university can provide students outside of its primary curriculum.
“We need people with an entrepreneurial mindset to address the problems we have within Michigan, within the U.S.,” he said. “TechArb will hopefully become a core support mechanism for student entrepreneurship — and, eventually, faculty entrepreneurship — on the Michigan campus.”
For now, TechArb is an entrepreneurial experiment for the 11 companies, RPM Ventures, UM and McKinley. If the students find it useful and the university sees it as successful, TechArb could become permanent.
The TechArb entrepreneurs are currently working with RPM Ventures on a proposal for UM.
Zurbuchen said he thinks the university can sustain TechArb in its current location for under $300,000 a year, depending on staffing needs. He said the university would likely leave TechArb at its current McKinley-owned location, opposed to moving it on campus, at least in the short-term.
“My feeling is that it's working where it is,” he said. “It's really about what happens with the newly acquired Pfizer area. If it's going to be an entrepreneurial center, of course, we'll want to be near it.”
Don Reimer, director of the Lear Entrepreneurial Center in the College of Engineering at Lawrence Technological University, said all of the state's universities are trying to develop strong entrepreneurs.
“The entrepreneurial minds in Michigan are now taking leadership roles within the state, and now we're competing globally, so the mindset, in terms of innovation, is very important to the economic development in Michigan,” he said. “I think the university (UM) would be wise to take a good look at what these kids are doing.”
Lawrence Tech does not currently have a student-run incubator, Reimer said, but the university offers an entrepreneurial internship program where selected students work with local entrepreneurs.
Wejrowski said the TechArb residents are cataloging data in an attempt to formalize the benefits. But, he said, success is the best — and easiest — way to secure funding.
“The biggest thing that can happen to move this forward is for one of these companies to take off,” he said. “Then, we can tell the university they started here at TechArb.”
Facebook was launched from a Harvard University dorm room. Michael Dell founded Dell Inc. while attending the University of Texas. Weiser hopes TechArb's gifted entrepreneurs can rise to tech mogul status.
“It will definitely help raise the profile of Michigan as an entrepreneurial university,” he said. “Fifteen years ago Larry Page was no different than these kids are today.”
Larry Page is the 26th richest person in the world, worth $12 billion, according to Forbes. He grew up in Lansing and graduated from UM with a bachelor's in computer science. He's the co-founder of Google.
“Five years from now, when Michigan has the next Dell or Facebook,” Weiser said. “People won't talk about how it started in a dorm room; they'll talk about how it was started at TechArb.”
Monday, July 20, 2009
Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
http://tinyurl.com/nphgkk
July 20, 2009
Issue no. 377
Health Care Reform Should Not Tax Employers
After all the discussion and effort by Congress and the Administration to introduce a few measures to help small businesses in the recovery, I was alarmed last week to see the House introduce a health care overhaul bill with a measure to punish certain businesses that do not provide health insurance.
[More]
From the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship Blog
Economy Will Revive with Help from Entrepreneurs
The SBA Office of Advocacy recently released its annual report The Small Business Economy. In an accompanying letter to the President, the report affirms that "the economy will revive, with help from America's entrepreneurs." [More]
This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy
Several committees continue to cover clean & green issues as well as a Science & Technology hearing on encouraging the participation of female students in STEM fields. [More]
The Research & Experimentation Tax Credit
Last week, the House Committee on Small Business held a hearing on "Helping Small Business Innovators through the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit." Led by the Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology, members listened to the experience of technology entrepreneurs in utilizing this tool, commonly known as the R&D tax credit. [More]
Update on SBIR Reauthorization
Late on Monday (07/13/2009), the Senate passed S. 1233 via unanimous consent. This bill would reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs through 2023 and change the eligibility criterion for VC-backed firms. [More]
A Seemingly Simple Concept: Cost Matters
Until late 2008, Tom Sullivan served as the Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the Small Business Administration. While he is now back in the private sector, he is still championing the cause of entrepreneurs and small business owners everywhere. [More]
SBA Funding on the Rise
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the Financial Services Appropriations Bill, which incorporates a $22 million increase for the Small Business Administration (SBA) over the President's request. The bill allocates a total of $697 million in funding for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and its core capital and counseling programs. [More]
TARP Funds for Small Businesses?
The Obama Administration revealed last week that an initiative to redirect some of the $700 billion TARP funds away from banks and towards helping small businesses is on the table. [More]
Recognizing Outstanding Scientific Entrepreneurs
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association announced today that nominations have opened for the Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award, which recognizes a researcher who has successfully brought his or her discovery to market. [More]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Correction: The Small Wonders report mentioned in last week's issue of PDE-news included a broken link. The report is viewable online as well as downloadable as a PDF.
July 20, 2009
Issue no. 377
Health Care Reform Should Not Tax Employers
After all the discussion and effort by Congress and the Administration to introduce a few measures to help small businesses in the recovery, I was alarmed last week to see the House introduce a health care overhaul bill with a measure to punish certain businesses that do not provide health insurance.
[More]
From the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship Blog
Economy Will Revive with Help from Entrepreneurs
The SBA Office of Advocacy recently released its annual report The Small Business Economy. In an accompanying letter to the President, the report affirms that "the economy will revive, with help from America's entrepreneurs." [More]
This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy
Several committees continue to cover clean & green issues as well as a Science & Technology hearing on encouraging the participation of female students in STEM fields. [More]
The Research & Experimentation Tax Credit
Last week, the House Committee on Small Business held a hearing on "Helping Small Business Innovators through the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit." Led by the Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology, members listened to the experience of technology entrepreneurs in utilizing this tool, commonly known as the R&D tax credit. [More]
Update on SBIR Reauthorization
Late on Monday (07/13/2009), the Senate passed S. 1233 via unanimous consent. This bill would reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs through 2023 and change the eligibility criterion for VC-backed firms. [More]
A Seemingly Simple Concept: Cost Matters
Until late 2008, Tom Sullivan served as the Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the Small Business Administration. While he is now back in the private sector, he is still championing the cause of entrepreneurs and small business owners everywhere. [More]
SBA Funding on the Rise
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the Financial Services Appropriations Bill, which incorporates a $22 million increase for the Small Business Administration (SBA) over the President's request. The bill allocates a total of $697 million in funding for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and its core capital and counseling programs. [More]
TARP Funds for Small Businesses?
The Obama Administration revealed last week that an initiative to redirect some of the $700 billion TARP funds away from banks and towards helping small businesses is on the table. [More]
Recognizing Outstanding Scientific Entrepreneurs
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association announced today that nominations have opened for the Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award, which recognizes a researcher who has successfully brought his or her discovery to market. [More]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Correction: The Small Wonders report mentioned in last week's issue of PDE-news included a broken link. The report is viewable online as well as downloadable as a PDF.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Recovery Act Opportunities in Mid-Michigan
http://tinyurl.com/lsnvke
Below you will find a few Recovery Act competitive grant opportunities that we have selected because of their potential fit in our communities.
Do you have questions about a particular grant? Can you share a story about how the Recovery Act is impacting your community? Are you looking for feedback on a concept for a grant? Then please click here and join the Mid Michigan Innovation Team's Recovery Act Discussion Forum and share your thoughts with others in the region. We have created this forum for Recovery Act 101 Session attendees and others in the region to join in conversation about how we can make the most of the Recovery Act in Mid Michigan.
If you are interested in partnering with an agency in Mid Michigan or would like assistance in developing a concept or collaborative partnership in order to compete for Recovery Act funds, please contact Melodee Hagensen at mhagensen@skilledwork.org
Sincerely,
MMIT
Mid Michigan Innovation Team
Funding Opportunities
Community Development
Facility Investment Program
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services- Health Resources & Services Administration
Purpose: For existing Health Center Program grantees under the Facility Investment Program (FIP) initiative to address significant and pressing capital improvement needs in health centers, including construction and renovation. Health center grantees requesting FIP grants must demonstrate how their proposal will lead to improvements in access to health services for underserved populations and create health center and construction-related jobs. FIP grants are one-time awards, and there will be no ongoing support of FIP grant activities after the end of the 2-year project/budget period.
Due: 8/06/2009
Pathways out of Poverty Grants
Agency: Department of Labor-Employment and Training Administration
Purpose: For projects that provide training and placement services to provide pathways out of poverty and into employment within specific industries.
Due: 9/29/09
Economic Development
Small Business Innovation Research Program - Phase I
Agency: USDA - Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CREES)
Purpose: To provide an opportunity for US-owned, for-profit small business firms to submit innovative, applied, research and development projects that address important problems facing American agriculture and have the potential to lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful. Research proposals are accepted in any of the following topic areas: 1) Forests and Related Resources; 2) Plant Production and Protection - Biology; 3) Animal Production and Protection; 4) Air, Water, and Soils; 5) Food Science and Nutrition; 6) Rural Development; 7) Aquaculture; 8) Biofuels and Biobased Products; 9) Marketing and Trade; 10) Animal Manure Management; 11) Small and Mid-Size Farms; and 12) Plant Production and Protection - Engineering. The SBIR program exists in three phases. The purpose of Phase I is to prove the scientific or technical feasibility of the proposed research and development effort. Phase I projects typically are for 8 months. Phase II is the principal research and development effort and often involves moving the project from the laboratory to the field or the development of prototypes. Phase II projects typically are for 24 months. Phase III is the commercialization phase and there is no SBIR support provided for this phase. This SBIR program funding opportunity is for Phase I applications.
Due: 9/03/2009
Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans (B&I)
Agency: USDA
Purpose: To improve, develop, or finance business, industry, and employment and improve the economic and environmental climate in rural communities by bolstering the existing private credit structure through the guarantee of quality loans which will provide lasting community benefits.
Due: Available until funds are depleted or until a date to be published in Fiscal Year 2010, whichever occurs earlier.
Rural Enterprise Grants (RBEG)
Agency: USDA
Purpose: To improve rural development through grants for projects including: Acquisition or development of land; easements, or rights of way; construction, conversion and renovation of buildings, plants, machinery, equipment, access streets and roads, parking areas, and utilities; pollution control and abatement; capitalization of revolving loan funds including funds that will make loans for start ups and working capital; training and technical assistance; distance learning for adult job training and advancement; rural transportation improvement; and project planning.
Due: Available until funds are depleted or until a date to be published in Fiscal Year 2010, whichever occurs earlier.
Education and Research
Early Career Research Program
Agency: Department of Energy-Office of Science
Purpose: For support under the Early Career Research Program in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR);Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Basic Energy Sciences (BES),Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); High Energy Physics (HEP), and Nuclear Physics(NP). The purpose of this program is to support the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and to stimulate research careers in the areas supported by the DOE Office of Science.
Due: Letter of Intent due by 8/03/2009 at 4:30pm EDT. Application due 9/01/2009
Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)
Agency: National Institutes of Health
Purpose: To stimulate research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. These AREA grants create opportunities for scientists and institutions otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs, to contribute to the Nation's biomedical and behavioral research effort. AREA grants are intended to support small-scale health-related research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible, domestic institutions.
Due: Opens 8/24/2009; Applications due 9/24/2009
Energy and Environment
Smart Grid Investment Grant Program
Agency: Department of Energy
Purpose: The federal funds for this program have been divided into two categories: 1. Smaller projects in which the federal share would be in the range of 300,000 Dollars US to 20,000,000 Dollars US. 2. Larger projects in which the federal cost share would be in the range of 20,000,000 Dollars US to 200,000,000 Dollars US.
Due: 8/06/2009
Smart Grid Demonstrations
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: projects will include regionally unique demonstrations to verify smart grid technology viability, quantify smart grid costs and benefits, and validate new smart grid business models, at a scale that can be readily adapted and replicated around the country. The goal of this FOA is to demonstrate technologies in regions across the States, Districts, and Territories of the United States of America that embody essential and salient characteristics of each region and present a suite of use cases for national implementation and replication. From these use cases, the goal is to collect and provide the optimal amount of information necessary for customers, distributors, and generators to change their behavior in a way that reduces system demands and costs, increases energy efficiency, optimally allocates and matches demand and resources to meet that demand, and increases the reliability of the grid. The social benefits of a smart grid are reduced emissions, lower costs, increased reliability, greater security and flexibility to accommodate new energy technologies, including renewable, intermittent and distributed sources.
Due: 8/06/2009
Geologic Sequestration Training and Research
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: sought to provide training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students that will provide the human capital and skills required for implementing and deploying carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. Training can be accomplished through fundamental research in the CCS technology area. Fundamental research is needed to advance science in: simulation and risk assessment; monitoring, verification, and accounting; geological related analytical tools; methods to interpret geophysical models; well completion and integrity for long-term CO2 storage; and CO2 capture.
Due: 8/11/2009
Advanced Energy Efficient Building Technologies
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: Six broad Areas of Interest. Each Area of Interest includes several specific Technical Subtopics:
• Area of Interest 1-Advanced Building Control Strategies, Communications and Information Technologies for Net-Zero Energy Buildings
• Area of Interest 2-Analysis, Design and Technical Tools
• Area of Interest 3-Building Envelope and Windows
• Area of Interest 4-Residential and Commercial HVAC and Crosscutting Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Research
• Area of Interest 5-Water Heating, Residential and Commercial Appliances and MELs
• Area of Interest 6-Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC)
Due: 8/18/2009
Solid State Lighting U.S. Manufacturing-Round 1
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: To achieve cost reduction of solid-state lighting for general illumination through improvements in manufacturing equipment, processes, or techniques. It is anticipated that success will lead to a more rapid adoption/installation of high-quality SSL products resulting in a significant reduction of energy use and a corresponding reduction of environmental pollutants. A secondary objective is to maintain, in the case of light emitting diodes (LEDs), or establish, in the case of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), the manufacturing and technology base within the US.
Due: 8/24/2009 at 3pm EDT
Below you will find a few Recovery Act competitive grant opportunities that we have selected because of their potential fit in our communities.
Do you have questions about a particular grant? Can you share a story about how the Recovery Act is impacting your community? Are you looking for feedback on a concept for a grant? Then please click here and join the Mid Michigan Innovation Team's Recovery Act Discussion Forum and share your thoughts with others in the region. We have created this forum for Recovery Act 101 Session attendees and others in the region to join in conversation about how we can make the most of the Recovery Act in Mid Michigan.
If you are interested in partnering with an agency in Mid Michigan or would like assistance in developing a concept or collaborative partnership in order to compete for Recovery Act funds, please contact Melodee Hagensen at mhagensen@skilledwork.org
Sincerely,
MMIT
Mid Michigan Innovation Team
Funding Opportunities
Community Development
Facility Investment Program
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services- Health Resources & Services Administration
Purpose: For existing Health Center Program grantees under the Facility Investment Program (FIP) initiative to address significant and pressing capital improvement needs in health centers, including construction and renovation. Health center grantees requesting FIP grants must demonstrate how their proposal will lead to improvements in access to health services for underserved populations and create health center and construction-related jobs. FIP grants are one-time awards, and there will be no ongoing support of FIP grant activities after the end of the 2-year project/budget period.
Due: 8/06/2009
Pathways out of Poverty Grants
Agency: Department of Labor-Employment and Training Administration
Purpose: For projects that provide training and placement services to provide pathways out of poverty and into employment within specific industries.
Due: 9/29/09
Economic Development
Small Business Innovation Research Program - Phase I
Agency: USDA - Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CREES)
Purpose: To provide an opportunity for US-owned, for-profit small business firms to submit innovative, applied, research and development projects that address important problems facing American agriculture and have the potential to lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful. Research proposals are accepted in any of the following topic areas: 1) Forests and Related Resources; 2) Plant Production and Protection - Biology; 3) Animal Production and Protection; 4) Air, Water, and Soils; 5) Food Science and Nutrition; 6) Rural Development; 7) Aquaculture; 8) Biofuels and Biobased Products; 9) Marketing and Trade; 10) Animal Manure Management; 11) Small and Mid-Size Farms; and 12) Plant Production and Protection - Engineering. The SBIR program exists in three phases. The purpose of Phase I is to prove the scientific or technical feasibility of the proposed research and development effort. Phase I projects typically are for 8 months. Phase II is the principal research and development effort and often involves moving the project from the laboratory to the field or the development of prototypes. Phase II projects typically are for 24 months. Phase III is the commercialization phase and there is no SBIR support provided for this phase. This SBIR program funding opportunity is for Phase I applications.
Due: 9/03/2009
Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans (B&I)
Agency: USDA
Purpose: To improve, develop, or finance business, industry, and employment and improve the economic and environmental climate in rural communities by bolstering the existing private credit structure through the guarantee of quality loans which will provide lasting community benefits.
Due: Available until funds are depleted or until a date to be published in Fiscal Year 2010, whichever occurs earlier.
Rural Enterprise Grants (RBEG)
Agency: USDA
Purpose: To improve rural development through grants for projects including: Acquisition or development of land; easements, or rights of way; construction, conversion and renovation of buildings, plants, machinery, equipment, access streets and roads, parking areas, and utilities; pollution control and abatement; capitalization of revolving loan funds including funds that will make loans for start ups and working capital; training and technical assistance; distance learning for adult job training and advancement; rural transportation improvement; and project planning.
Due: Available until funds are depleted or until a date to be published in Fiscal Year 2010, whichever occurs earlier.
Education and Research
Early Career Research Program
Agency: Department of Energy-Office of Science
Purpose: For support under the Early Career Research Program in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR);Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Basic Energy Sciences (BES),Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); High Energy Physics (HEP), and Nuclear Physics(NP). The purpose of this program is to support the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and to stimulate research careers in the areas supported by the DOE Office of Science.
Due: Letter of Intent due by 8/03/2009 at 4:30pm EDT. Application due 9/01/2009
Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)
Agency: National Institutes of Health
Purpose: To stimulate research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. These AREA grants create opportunities for scientists and institutions otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs, to contribute to the Nation's biomedical and behavioral research effort. AREA grants are intended to support small-scale health-related research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible, domestic institutions.
Due: Opens 8/24/2009; Applications due 9/24/2009
Energy and Environment
Smart Grid Investment Grant Program
Agency: Department of Energy
Purpose: The federal funds for this program have been divided into two categories: 1. Smaller projects in which the federal share would be in the range of 300,000 Dollars US to 20,000,000 Dollars US. 2. Larger projects in which the federal cost share would be in the range of 20,000,000 Dollars US to 200,000,000 Dollars US.
Due: 8/06/2009
Smart Grid Demonstrations
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: projects will include regionally unique demonstrations to verify smart grid technology viability, quantify smart grid costs and benefits, and validate new smart grid business models, at a scale that can be readily adapted and replicated around the country. The goal of this FOA is to demonstrate technologies in regions across the States, Districts, and Territories of the United States of America that embody essential and salient characteristics of each region and present a suite of use cases for national implementation and replication. From these use cases, the goal is to collect and provide the optimal amount of information necessary for customers, distributors, and generators to change their behavior in a way that reduces system demands and costs, increases energy efficiency, optimally allocates and matches demand and resources to meet that demand, and increases the reliability of the grid. The social benefits of a smart grid are reduced emissions, lower costs, increased reliability, greater security and flexibility to accommodate new energy technologies, including renewable, intermittent and distributed sources.
Due: 8/06/2009
Geologic Sequestration Training and Research
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: sought to provide training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students that will provide the human capital and skills required for implementing and deploying carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. Training can be accomplished through fundamental research in the CCS technology area. Fundamental research is needed to advance science in: simulation and risk assessment; monitoring, verification, and accounting; geological related analytical tools; methods to interpret geophysical models; well completion and integrity for long-term CO2 storage; and CO2 capture.
Due: 8/11/2009
Advanced Energy Efficient Building Technologies
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: Six broad Areas of Interest. Each Area of Interest includes several specific Technical Subtopics:
• Area of Interest 1-Advanced Building Control Strategies, Communications and Information Technologies for Net-Zero Energy Buildings
• Area of Interest 2-Analysis, Design and Technical Tools
• Area of Interest 3-Building Envelope and Windows
• Area of Interest 4-Residential and Commercial HVAC and Crosscutting Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Research
• Area of Interest 5-Water Heating, Residential and Commercial Appliances and MELs
• Area of Interest 6-Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC)
Due: 8/18/2009
Solid State Lighting U.S. Manufacturing-Round 1
Agency: Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory
Purpose: To achieve cost reduction of solid-state lighting for general illumination through improvements in manufacturing equipment, processes, or techniques. It is anticipated that success will lead to a more rapid adoption/installation of high-quality SSL products resulting in a significant reduction of energy use and a corresponding reduction of environmental pollutants. A secondary objective is to maintain, in the case of light emitting diodes (LEDs), or establish, in the case of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), the manufacturing and technology base within the US.
Due: 8/24/2009 at 3pm EDT
Monday, July 13, 2009
Microloan Program in Detroit
http://tinyurl.com/knz3yg - Check out this cool Detroit microloan program from Model D Media
Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe56167071620275721c&m=fefd1c75756104&ls=fdf213707265067f7d10757c&l=fe601575746c01747516&s=fdf015747c63027a74177874&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe2d16737266047b7d1171&r=0
Great e-mail list on the governmental policy side of entrepreneurship.
Great e-mail list on the governmental policy side of entrepreneurship.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Young talent a high priority at Mackinac conference
by Sven Gustafson | Michigan Business Review
Thursday May 28, 2009, 6:20 AM
Christianne Sims
Young talent will feature prominently during this year's Mackinac Policy Conference after a year when the economic hurricane threatened to wash the issue off the regional agenda altogether.
Conference organizers expect more than 70 so-called young professionals from Detroit and other regions to mix and mingle during the four-day conference on Mackinac Island, which ends May 30, up from 65 last year. The conference for the second straight year wraps up Saturday with a session track designed specifically for the demographic.
Research increasingly suggests that members of the so-called Millennial generation, born roughly between 1977 and the mid-1990s, are key indicators of a region's economic health. Many experts suggest Michigan is losing out as more and more of its best and brightest pull up stakes and relocate out-of-state after graduating college.
Participants in the 2008 Mackinac conference ranked as their top priority for action doing more to retain and attract young talent.
"We've been playing around with this notion of whether it's the job or the place that comes first" in attracting Millennials, said Christianne Sims, director of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Fusion group for young professionals.
"We have to showcase both at the same time in order for us to start competing on the national level."
But while the jobs picture certainly hasn't helped bolster the case for Detroit or Michigan as a whole, much of the rest of the country has joined the state in losing jobs. Lou Glazer, president of the Michigan Future Inc. think tank, pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal story that said young people continue to flock to Portland, Ore. despite high unemployment.
Glazer published a report last summer that found that young professionals in Michigan aren't nearly as concentrated in urban metropolitan areas as they are in Illinois and Minnesota, the two Great Lakes states with the highest per-capita incomes.
"If you look back to the '95-2000 period, when Michigan had a really strong economy, we still had the third-highest out-migration of college graduates," Glazer said. "So both (jobs and place) are hurting us."
In the past year, Fusion members have launched a "Breakfast with CEOs" series for members and a Web site to help employers in Michigan find interns from colleges and universities. Much work remains to highlight opportunities in non-automotive sectors such as film, health care or alternative energy, Sims said.
"It kind of goes along with that whole car-jobs mentality with, what else is there in Detroit and specifically, what we need to do to help make this a more attractive place from the outside beyond a lot of these other politics that have been going on and have... plagued us from a media image for so long," Sims said.
Jeanette Pierce
At Inside Detroit, a nonprofit that promotes the city and region through bus and walking tours and events, things have been "extremely, insanely, off-the-hook busy," co-founder Jeanette Pierce said.
The group recently has helped showcase the city for internship and young-talent programs for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and it organized 12-hour bus tours to help promote the region for the U.S. Army's TACOM division in Warren.
"I'm seeing a still kind of a disconnect between the powers that be, if you will, and the grassroots, what I call the do-ers," Pierce said. "But it is getting better."
Keith Zendler
While the economy has taken much of the focus off young professionals in favor of hanging onto jobs, community development groups are more active than before in improving quality of life issues, said Keith Zendler, CEO of PeopleMovers.com, a social networking startup site in Detroit.
"Business as usual hasn't been getting it done," Zendler said. "Since the last conference, this whole economic crisis has forced businesses and leaders to get outside the box and think differently about what's important.
"I do see an accelerated movement toward building a strong community."
Contact reporter Sven Gustafson at (734) 302-1732 or sveng@mbusinessreview.com. Or follow him at www.twitter.com/sveng.
Thursday May 28, 2009, 6:20 AM
Christianne Sims
Young talent will feature prominently during this year's Mackinac Policy Conference after a year when the economic hurricane threatened to wash the issue off the regional agenda altogether.
Conference organizers expect more than 70 so-called young professionals from Detroit and other regions to mix and mingle during the four-day conference on Mackinac Island, which ends May 30, up from 65 last year. The conference for the second straight year wraps up Saturday with a session track designed specifically for the demographic.
Research increasingly suggests that members of the so-called Millennial generation, born roughly between 1977 and the mid-1990s, are key indicators of a region's economic health. Many experts suggest Michigan is losing out as more and more of its best and brightest pull up stakes and relocate out-of-state after graduating college.
Participants in the 2008 Mackinac conference ranked as their top priority for action doing more to retain and attract young talent.
"We've been playing around with this notion of whether it's the job or the place that comes first" in attracting Millennials, said Christianne Sims, director of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Fusion group for young professionals.
"We have to showcase both at the same time in order for us to start competing on the national level."
But while the jobs picture certainly hasn't helped bolster the case for Detroit or Michigan as a whole, much of the rest of the country has joined the state in losing jobs. Lou Glazer, president of the Michigan Future Inc. think tank, pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal story that said young people continue to flock to Portland, Ore. despite high unemployment.
Glazer published a report last summer that found that young professionals in Michigan aren't nearly as concentrated in urban metropolitan areas as they are in Illinois and Minnesota, the two Great Lakes states with the highest per-capita incomes.
"If you look back to the '95-2000 period, when Michigan had a really strong economy, we still had the third-highest out-migration of college graduates," Glazer said. "So both (jobs and place) are hurting us."
In the past year, Fusion members have launched a "Breakfast with CEOs" series for members and a Web site to help employers in Michigan find interns from colleges and universities. Much work remains to highlight opportunities in non-automotive sectors such as film, health care or alternative energy, Sims said.
"It kind of goes along with that whole car-jobs mentality with, what else is there in Detroit and specifically, what we need to do to help make this a more attractive place from the outside beyond a lot of these other politics that have been going on and have... plagued us from a media image for so long," Sims said.
Jeanette Pierce
At Inside Detroit, a nonprofit that promotes the city and region through bus and walking tours and events, things have been "extremely, insanely, off-the-hook busy," co-founder Jeanette Pierce said.
The group recently has helped showcase the city for internship and young-talent programs for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and it organized 12-hour bus tours to help promote the region for the U.S. Army's TACOM division in Warren.
"I'm seeing a still kind of a disconnect between the powers that be, if you will, and the grassroots, what I call the do-ers," Pierce said. "But it is getting better."
Keith Zendler
While the economy has taken much of the focus off young professionals in favor of hanging onto jobs, community development groups are more active than before in improving quality of life issues, said Keith Zendler, CEO of PeopleMovers.com, a social networking startup site in Detroit.
"Business as usual hasn't been getting it done," Zendler said. "Since the last conference, this whole economic crisis has forced businesses and leaders to get outside the box and think differently about what's important.
"I do see an accelerated movement toward building a strong community."
Contact reporter Sven Gustafson at (734) 302-1732 or sveng@mbusinessreview.com. Or follow him at www.twitter.com/sveng.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Michigan Land Policy Institute
http://www.landpolicy.msu.edu/
The best source for Michigan economic development news.
The best source for Michigan economic development news.
Ann Arbor SPARK to President Obama: 'Michigan has a bright future'
http://blog.mlive.com/businessinnovation/2009/07/ann_arbor_spark_to_president_o.html
Ann Arbor SPARK to President Obama: 'Michigan has a bright future'
Posted by Nathan Bomey | Michigan Business Review July 06, 2009 09:50AM
Ann Arbor SPARK, the region's leading regional economic development organization, hopes to convince President Barack Obama that Ann Arbor is a prime example of what Michigan can become.
SPARK CEO Michael Finney urged Obama, who is visiting southeast Michigan on July 14, to tour Ann Arbor's "diversified" economy in an open letter released last week.
"Michigan has a bright future and the seeds have been sown and are starting to bear fruit," Finney wrote. "With the right planning and investment, the Michigan of the future can look a whole lot like the Ann Arbor of today."
Political leaders and economic development officials often describe Ann Arbor as a beacon of economic hope for a state thirsting for jobs and capital investment.
Barack Obama
That's why SPARK's new chairman, University of Michigan Vice President for Research Stephen Forrest, wants to extend SPARK's model to other regions in the state.
Finney, to his credit, never downplays the role of U-M in propelling the region's economy in the midst of a global economic crisis.
U-M is still the linchpin, and Ann Arbor surely has a significant edge on the rest of the state solely because of the university.
A few more highlights of Finney's letter:
• "Ann Arbor has diversified - there are more IT, (software), life science and cleantech companies in the Ann Arbor area than automotive-related businesses.
Nathan Bomey is a reporter for Michigan Business Review.
• "There is a thriving entrepreneur ecosystem with active (venture capital) and angel support for start-ups."
What do you think: How can the rest of Michigan -- not blessed with the University of Michigan in its backyard -- copy Ann Arbor's economic success?
Ann Arbor SPARK to President Obama: 'Michigan has a bright future'
Posted by Nathan Bomey | Michigan Business Review July 06, 2009 09:50AM
Ann Arbor SPARK, the region's leading regional economic development organization, hopes to convince President Barack Obama that Ann Arbor is a prime example of what Michigan can become.
SPARK CEO Michael Finney urged Obama, who is visiting southeast Michigan on July 14, to tour Ann Arbor's "diversified" economy in an open letter released last week.
"Michigan has a bright future and the seeds have been sown and are starting to bear fruit," Finney wrote. "With the right planning and investment, the Michigan of the future can look a whole lot like the Ann Arbor of today."
Political leaders and economic development officials often describe Ann Arbor as a beacon of economic hope for a state thirsting for jobs and capital investment.
Barack Obama
That's why SPARK's new chairman, University of Michigan Vice President for Research Stephen Forrest, wants to extend SPARK's model to other regions in the state.
Finney, to his credit, never downplays the role of U-M in propelling the region's economy in the midst of a global economic crisis.
U-M is still the linchpin, and Ann Arbor surely has a significant edge on the rest of the state solely because of the university.
A few more highlights of Finney's letter:
• "Ann Arbor has diversified - there are more IT, (software), life science and cleantech companies in the Ann Arbor area than automotive-related businesses.
Nathan Bomey is a reporter for Michigan Business Review.
• "There is a thriving entrepreneur ecosystem with active (venture capital) and angel support for start-ups."
What do you think: How can the rest of Michigan -- not blessed with the University of Michigan in its backyard -- copy Ann Arbor's economic success?
Dan Kildee and the Genesee County Land Bank in USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-09-landbanks_N.htm
Land banks gain popularity as way to fight urban blight
By Kathleen Gray, USA TODAY
In downtown Flint, the historic Durant Hotel sat empty for more than 30 years until a financial tool led to its current $30 million renovation.
That tool is the land bank, an idea gaining national attention for its positive impact on urban blight and abandonment at a time when most cities are dealing with more foreclosures.
Instead of selling abandoned or foreclosed structures at auction, the city or county creates a land bank of properties. Some homes are fixed up and sold. The worst of the homes are demolished, and the land is then sold to nearby homeowners or developers, explains Genesee County (Mich.) Treasurer Dan Kildee, who started that county's land bank.
Municipalities operating land banks include Flint; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan.; and Richmond, Calif. The money generated from sales and the collection of delinquent taxes allows the land banks to pay for rehabilitation or demolition.
"The land bank is changing the conditions and aesthetics in Flint," Kildee says. "Where once there was an abandoned house, there's now a community garden."
The concept was first used 10 years ago in cities such as Atlanta and Louisville, according to Frank Alexander, a law professor and director of the project for Affordable Housing and Community Development at Emory University in Atlanta. As the recession continues to impact housing, new land banks are forming to ensure the foreclosure crisis doesn't further erode struggling communities.
• Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, launched a land bank in May. County Treasurer Jim Rokakis says he hopes it will be able to have an impact on its 35,000 vacant properties.
"A vacant home on a street absolutely destroys the value in the rest of the neighborhood," he says. "There are some neighborhoods in Cleveland that have no housing market left."
• The Overland Park City Council approved its land bank last month and plans to use $700,000 in federal stimulus money to buy, fix up and resell three foreclosed homes, City Manager John Nachbar says. The city has about 400 homes in some stage of foreclosure, he says.
• Maryland passed legislation last year authorizing land banks in an attempt to help Baltimore deal with 30,000 foreclosed homes, but the City Council hasn't approved the concept yet. Pennsylvania and New York also are considering land bank legislation, Alexander says.
Award-winning idea
Alexander predicts the recent federal Housing and Economic Recovery Act, which is intended to stabilize the faltering housing market, will create a boon for land banks.
"I imagine by the end of 2009, we will easily see 100 to 200 local governments with land banks," he says. "But in a perfect world, land banks should work themselves out of existence. "
The Genesee County Land Bank, established in 2002, takes ownership of thousands of parcels of property in the county seized by the government for unpaid property taxes. Kildee says it uses negotiated agreements to sell its more valuable tax-foreclosed properties, mostly in the suburbs, to raise cash. Then it uses that money to fix up blighted areas in Flint — greening vacant lots, demolishing abandoned houses and creating pocket parks where once there was only vacancy.
A 2006 Michigan State University study estimated the land bank's activities in Flint had boosted property values countywide by more than $100 million. Harvard's Kennedy School of Government named the Genesee County Land Bank the winner of its 2007 Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations Award in Affordable Housing.
Impact on property values
Since its founding, the Genesee land bank has sold 1,600 properties and has raised $6.4 million through the sales, Kildee says. That fund has enabled the land bank to reconstruct dozens of single-family houses, sell off hundreds of vacant lots to adjoining homeowners and create incentives for downtown redevelopment projects such as the Durant Hotel.
The eight-story, 250-room hotel, built in the 1920s, is being renovated for use as residential housing with 93 apartments and a restaurant and bar on the ground level. Kildee says the project is on track to be completed by the end of the year.
In one Flint block of West Dayton Street, where there are seven abandoned homes and several vacant lots, neighbors have teamed up to mow the lawns and trim the shrubs at the homes and convert two of the vacant lots owned by the Genesee County Land Bank into a park and community garden.
"We're trying to keep our neighborhood value up," says Sue Graham, 54, who grew up in the neighborhood and bought her parents home in the 1980s.
Gray reports for the Detroit Free Press. Contributing: John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press.
Land banks gain popularity as way to fight urban blight
By Kathleen Gray, USA TODAY
In downtown Flint, the historic Durant Hotel sat empty for more than 30 years until a financial tool led to its current $30 million renovation.
That tool is the land bank, an idea gaining national attention for its positive impact on urban blight and abandonment at a time when most cities are dealing with more foreclosures.
Instead of selling abandoned or foreclosed structures at auction, the city or county creates a land bank of properties. Some homes are fixed up and sold. The worst of the homes are demolished, and the land is then sold to nearby homeowners or developers, explains Genesee County (Mich.) Treasurer Dan Kildee, who started that county's land bank.
Municipalities operating land banks include Flint; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan.; and Richmond, Calif. The money generated from sales and the collection of delinquent taxes allows the land banks to pay for rehabilitation or demolition.
"The land bank is changing the conditions and aesthetics in Flint," Kildee says. "Where once there was an abandoned house, there's now a community garden."
The concept was first used 10 years ago in cities such as Atlanta and Louisville, according to Frank Alexander, a law professor and director of the project for Affordable Housing and Community Development at Emory University in Atlanta. As the recession continues to impact housing, new land banks are forming to ensure the foreclosure crisis doesn't further erode struggling communities.
• Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, launched a land bank in May. County Treasurer Jim Rokakis says he hopes it will be able to have an impact on its 35,000 vacant properties.
"A vacant home on a street absolutely destroys the value in the rest of the neighborhood," he says. "There are some neighborhoods in Cleveland that have no housing market left."
• The Overland Park City Council approved its land bank last month and plans to use $700,000 in federal stimulus money to buy, fix up and resell three foreclosed homes, City Manager John Nachbar says. The city has about 400 homes in some stage of foreclosure, he says.
• Maryland passed legislation last year authorizing land banks in an attempt to help Baltimore deal with 30,000 foreclosed homes, but the City Council hasn't approved the concept yet. Pennsylvania and New York also are considering land bank legislation, Alexander says.
Award-winning idea
Alexander predicts the recent federal Housing and Economic Recovery Act, which is intended to stabilize the faltering housing market, will create a boon for land banks.
"I imagine by the end of 2009, we will easily see 100 to 200 local governments with land banks," he says. "But in a perfect world, land banks should work themselves out of existence. "
The Genesee County Land Bank, established in 2002, takes ownership of thousands of parcels of property in the county seized by the government for unpaid property taxes. Kildee says it uses negotiated agreements to sell its more valuable tax-foreclosed properties, mostly in the suburbs, to raise cash. Then it uses that money to fix up blighted areas in Flint — greening vacant lots, demolishing abandoned houses and creating pocket parks where once there was only vacancy.
A 2006 Michigan State University study estimated the land bank's activities in Flint had boosted property values countywide by more than $100 million. Harvard's Kennedy School of Government named the Genesee County Land Bank the winner of its 2007 Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations Award in Affordable Housing.
Impact on property values
Since its founding, the Genesee land bank has sold 1,600 properties and has raised $6.4 million through the sales, Kildee says. That fund has enabled the land bank to reconstruct dozens of single-family houses, sell off hundreds of vacant lots to adjoining homeowners and create incentives for downtown redevelopment projects such as the Durant Hotel.
The eight-story, 250-room hotel, built in the 1920s, is being renovated for use as residential housing with 93 apartments and a restaurant and bar on the ground level. Kildee says the project is on track to be completed by the end of the year.
In one Flint block of West Dayton Street, where there are seven abandoned homes and several vacant lots, neighbors have teamed up to mow the lawns and trim the shrubs at the homes and convert two of the vacant lots owned by the Genesee County Land Bank into a park and community garden.
"We're trying to keep our neighborhood value up," says Sue Graham, 54, who grew up in the neighborhood and bought her parents home in the 1980s.
Gray reports for the Detroit Free Press. Contributing: John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press.
Request to the Obama Administration about the Great Lakes Region
http://www.gluespace.org/blog/?p=508
Below is a letter sent today to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, requesting a meeting and making broad recommendations based on the consensus that emerged during the Great Lakes Metros and the New Opportunity Summit last month. We plan to continue releasing more detailed recommendations over the summer. I think this letter begins to summarize the themes and consensus that I witness around the region, in formal and informal conversations about the future of our cities.
————————–
July 9, 2009
Secretary Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W.
Washington, DC 20410
Dear Secretary Donovan:
In June, more than 200 practitioners, policy-makers and analysts from cities around the Great Lakes region came together in Buffalo, hosted by our four organizations, to discuss how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) can drive transformative change in distressed Great Lakes metros.
While the participants represented a diversity of backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives, they agreed that ARRA can be most effective if:
1. Community-based non-governmental organizations participate in coordinating ARRA investments, and thus become more effective partners with federal policy-makers;
2. The federal government and the states together use Metropolitan Planning Organizations to manage and oversee ARRA investments, and where MPOs do not exist, that the federal government itself uses metro-wide management in its own agencies, so that ARRA investments in infrastructure, housing and energy-efficiency measures are effective across municipal boundaries; and also if
3. The federal government understands the urgency of the distinctive challenges of Great Lakes metros – specifically,
* a 40-year history of depopulation, large-scale housing abandonment, persistent poverty and tax-base erosion in our urban cores,
* fractured intra-regional governance that has led to low-density sprawl without regional growth,
* under-funded brownfield remediation,
* federal transportation subsidies that undermine existing communities,
* federal housing policy that has both spurred sprawl and concentrated poverty, and
* insufficient investment in watershed-wide water-quality infrastructure.
Mr. Secretary, we respectfully request that the Obama Administration consider the following recommendations:
1. Move ARRA funds as quickly as possible into job-creating projects that address the following policy objectives:
a. Achieving energy efficiency in existing housing stock, and doing so in coordination with existing repair, rehabilitation and lead-abatement programs;
b. Completing wastewater-remediation projects that address critical CSO and watershed-runoff that pose an immediate and ongoing threat to Great Lakes water quality;
c. Focusing transportation infrastructure investment to enable and enhance population density;
d. Providing funding for green deconstruction of abandoned structures;
e. Providing funding for remediation and re-purposing vacant lots for use in urban agriculture and environmental sustainability projects.
2. Govern ARRA investments by metro-wide criteria:
d. Empower, by Presidential Order if necessary, the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies to require that State governments report on the metropolitan economic impact of ARRA investments they oversee;
b. Through HUD, incentivize state governments to empower existing or to create new Metropolitan Planning Organizations that will coordinate federal housing, transportation, clean-water and economic-development funds from ARRA;
c. Also through HUD, create or support regional land-banking that applies to the federal definition of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, such that our rapidly-depopulating urban regions do not see federal housing dollars continue to subsidize low-density residential development.
3. Enact and implement legislative initiatives, or take Executive action such that these initiatives become part of the ARRA implementation, specifically:
a. The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act (HR 932)
b. The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009
Furthermore, despite the demand for decision-making that supports “shovel ready” projects, we urge the Administration to consider how the ARRA can contribute to the achievement of specific, long-term, national goals in the areas of sustainability and poverty reduction. Defining ambitious goals and holding recipients accountable for meeting those marks will empower the innovation—in both partnerships and methods—that our metros require.
We are preparing a more detailed set of recommendations and a compilation of the presentations made at the Buffalo conference, which we will forward to you upon completion.
A specific concern of conferees is that the Obama Administration understand both the scale and the urgency of Great Lakes metros’ challenges. Brownfields in our older, mainly small- and mid-sized metros are probably never going to become the destinations for housing development, because our metros, unlike larger metros elsewhere in America, suffer from an over-stock of housing. Other opportunities to use these sites exist. Preference should be given whenever possible to programs and projects that re-use these brownfields, so that the federal government does not continue to encourage greenfield development and perpetuate sprawl.
Yet precisely because our Great Lakes metros have the unique wealth of Great Lakes proximity, relatively small ARRA investments–if implemented by metro region and not by city, town or village–hold the promise of tremendous long-term economic benefit.
In sum, Mr. Secretary, the conferees see ARRA as a tool that can achieve the short-term economic stimulus the President seeks as well as a much longer-term goal: economic sustainability for our distressed metros. We believe that ARRA can begin to reverse decades of counter-productive federal policy and thus spur the re-migration of people and investment to our metros. Sound policy in implementing ARRA will long outlive the immediate crisis ARRA was designed to address, and can set the stage for a federal policy that is much more responsive to our chronically distressed communities.
We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss the conference findings and the above recommendations with you at your earliest convenience, either in a Great Lakes metro of your choice or in Washington, D.C. We believe that these recommendations apply not only to the ongoing implementation of the ARRA, but also to future federal policy, as yet unshaped. If you are open to such a meeting, please contact Sarah Szurpicki at sarah@gluespace.org to inform us of your availability.
Sincerely,
Aaron Bartley
Partnership for the Public Good
Diane Devaul
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Bruce Fisher
Buffalo State College Center for Economic and Policy Studies
Sarah Szurpicki
Great Lakes Urban Exchange
Below is a letter sent today to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, requesting a meeting and making broad recommendations based on the consensus that emerged during the Great Lakes Metros and the New Opportunity Summit last month. We plan to continue releasing more detailed recommendations over the summer. I think this letter begins to summarize the themes and consensus that I witness around the region, in formal and informal conversations about the future of our cities.
————————–
July 9, 2009
Secretary Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W.
Washington, DC 20410
Dear Secretary Donovan:
In June, more than 200 practitioners, policy-makers and analysts from cities around the Great Lakes region came together in Buffalo, hosted by our four organizations, to discuss how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) can drive transformative change in distressed Great Lakes metros.
While the participants represented a diversity of backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives, they agreed that ARRA can be most effective if:
1. Community-based non-governmental organizations participate in coordinating ARRA investments, and thus become more effective partners with federal policy-makers;
2. The federal government and the states together use Metropolitan Planning Organizations to manage and oversee ARRA investments, and where MPOs do not exist, that the federal government itself uses metro-wide management in its own agencies, so that ARRA investments in infrastructure, housing and energy-efficiency measures are effective across municipal boundaries; and also if
3. The federal government understands the urgency of the distinctive challenges of Great Lakes metros – specifically,
* a 40-year history of depopulation, large-scale housing abandonment, persistent poverty and tax-base erosion in our urban cores,
* fractured intra-regional governance that has led to low-density sprawl without regional growth,
* under-funded brownfield remediation,
* federal transportation subsidies that undermine existing communities,
* federal housing policy that has both spurred sprawl and concentrated poverty, and
* insufficient investment in watershed-wide water-quality infrastructure.
Mr. Secretary, we respectfully request that the Obama Administration consider the following recommendations:
1. Move ARRA funds as quickly as possible into job-creating projects that address the following policy objectives:
a. Achieving energy efficiency in existing housing stock, and doing so in coordination with existing repair, rehabilitation and lead-abatement programs;
b. Completing wastewater-remediation projects that address critical CSO and watershed-runoff that pose an immediate and ongoing threat to Great Lakes water quality;
c. Focusing transportation infrastructure investment to enable and enhance population density;
d. Providing funding for green deconstruction of abandoned structures;
e. Providing funding for remediation and re-purposing vacant lots for use in urban agriculture and environmental sustainability projects.
2. Govern ARRA investments by metro-wide criteria:
d. Empower, by Presidential Order if necessary, the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies to require that State governments report on the metropolitan economic impact of ARRA investments they oversee;
b. Through HUD, incentivize state governments to empower existing or to create new Metropolitan Planning Organizations that will coordinate federal housing, transportation, clean-water and economic-development funds from ARRA;
c. Also through HUD, create or support regional land-banking that applies to the federal definition of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, such that our rapidly-depopulating urban regions do not see federal housing dollars continue to subsidize low-density residential development.
3. Enact and implement legislative initiatives, or take Executive action such that these initiatives become part of the ARRA implementation, specifically:
a. The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act (HR 932)
b. The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009
Furthermore, despite the demand for decision-making that supports “shovel ready” projects, we urge the Administration to consider how the ARRA can contribute to the achievement of specific, long-term, national goals in the areas of sustainability and poverty reduction. Defining ambitious goals and holding recipients accountable for meeting those marks will empower the innovation—in both partnerships and methods—that our metros require.
We are preparing a more detailed set of recommendations and a compilation of the presentations made at the Buffalo conference, which we will forward to you upon completion.
A specific concern of conferees is that the Obama Administration understand both the scale and the urgency of Great Lakes metros’ challenges. Brownfields in our older, mainly small- and mid-sized metros are probably never going to become the destinations for housing development, because our metros, unlike larger metros elsewhere in America, suffer from an over-stock of housing. Other opportunities to use these sites exist. Preference should be given whenever possible to programs and projects that re-use these brownfields, so that the federal government does not continue to encourage greenfield development and perpetuate sprawl.
Yet precisely because our Great Lakes metros have the unique wealth of Great Lakes proximity, relatively small ARRA investments–if implemented by metro region and not by city, town or village–hold the promise of tremendous long-term economic benefit.
In sum, Mr. Secretary, the conferees see ARRA as a tool that can achieve the short-term economic stimulus the President seeks as well as a much longer-term goal: economic sustainability for our distressed metros. We believe that ARRA can begin to reverse decades of counter-productive federal policy and thus spur the re-migration of people and investment to our metros. Sound policy in implementing ARRA will long outlive the immediate crisis ARRA was designed to address, and can set the stage for a federal policy that is much more responsive to our chronically distressed communities.
We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss the conference findings and the above recommendations with you at your earliest convenience, either in a Great Lakes metro of your choice or in Washington, D.C. We believe that these recommendations apply not only to the ongoing implementation of the ARRA, but also to future federal policy, as yet unshaped. If you are open to such a meeting, please contact Sarah Szurpicki at sarah@gluespace.org to inform us of your availability.
Sincerely,
Aaron Bartley
Partnership for the Public Good
Diane Devaul
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Bruce Fisher
Buffalo State College Center for Economic and Policy Studies
Sarah Szurpicki
Great Lakes Urban Exchange
Boomers Move To Self-Employment
Boomers Move To Self-Employment
Ashlea Ebeling, 07.02.09, 05:00 PM EDT
Rising unemployment reinforces their entrepreneurial bent.
Found at:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/self-employed-boomers-unemployment-personal-finance-older-entrepreneurs.html
The news again is grim. Unemployment rates in June continued to climb for those aged 55 and older--to 7.7% for men and 6.4% for women, up from 3.1% and 3%, respectively, in December 2007.
Sure, that's lower than the national 9.5% rate. The problem is, once older workers lose their jobs, they have trouble finding others.
Fortunately (for those in this age group and for the economy), older workers have recently demonstrated they have a plan B: Work for themselves.
Over the past decade, the highest rate of new-business creation has been posted by the 55 to 64 age group, Dane Stangler, senior analyst at the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., charity devoted to entrepreneurship, notes in a new report, "The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom." Using data from the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, the study finds that from 1996 to 2007, Americans aged 55 to 64 averaged a rate of entrepreneurial activity roughly one-third higher than those aged 20 to 34.
Ten Tips For Older Job Hunters
Sure, Bill Gates started Microsoft when he was 17, and "25 entrepreneurs under 25" sounds sexier than "50 entrepreneurs over 50." But the reality is that many entrepreneurs--those who will hopefully lift us out of the recession--are older folks.
"The image of the 20-something entrepreneur obscures the trends that have persisted for a decade," Stangler says.
The older-entrepreneur phenomenon predates the current recession. For example, a Kauffman survey of 5,000 firms started in 2004 showed that 18% of the founders were 55 or older.
The migration of older workers to self-employment helps explain a seeming anomaly in the job numbers. Even as their unemployment rate grows, so too does the total employment of those 55 and older.
The newly self-employed are helping drive those employment numbers up, says Sara Rix, an economics analyst at AARP's Public Policy Institute. From December 2007 to June 2009, the total number of older workers in nonagricultural industries rose 2% to 28.4 million, while the subset of older self-employed workers in nonagricultural industries increased by 10% to 2.84 million.
Older folks are taking buyouts, being laid off or coming out of retirement and going to work for themselves. Some are even tapping into their retirement savings to start their own businesses (see "The IRA Job Machine").
Looking forward, these boomer entrepreneurs aren't going to be going back to corporate jobs, Stangler predicts. Rather, they'll be starting another round of businesses, or at least mentoring a new group of entrepreneurs. (If you're starting a new venture, check out the free resources at the Service Corps of Retired Executives at www.score.org for 50-plus entrepreneurs.)
So if you're looking for a silver lining in the latest unemployment numbers, it might be this: According to Stangler, well over half of the largest companies in the U.S. and close to half of the fastest-growing firms were founded during previous recessions or bear markets. "This might be the start of a new entrepreneurial era," he says.
Ashlea Ebeling, 07.02.09, 05:00 PM EDT
Rising unemployment reinforces their entrepreneurial bent.
Found at:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/self-employed-boomers-unemployment-personal-finance-older-entrepreneurs.html
The news again is grim. Unemployment rates in June continued to climb for those aged 55 and older--to 7.7% for men and 6.4% for women, up from 3.1% and 3%, respectively, in December 2007.
Sure, that's lower than the national 9.5% rate. The problem is, once older workers lose their jobs, they have trouble finding others.
Fortunately (for those in this age group and for the economy), older workers have recently demonstrated they have a plan B: Work for themselves.
Over the past decade, the highest rate of new-business creation has been posted by the 55 to 64 age group, Dane Stangler, senior analyst at the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., charity devoted to entrepreneurship, notes in a new report, "The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom." Using data from the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, the study finds that from 1996 to 2007, Americans aged 55 to 64 averaged a rate of entrepreneurial activity roughly one-third higher than those aged 20 to 34.
Ten Tips For Older Job Hunters
Sure, Bill Gates started Microsoft when he was 17, and "25 entrepreneurs under 25" sounds sexier than "50 entrepreneurs over 50." But the reality is that many entrepreneurs--those who will hopefully lift us out of the recession--are older folks.
"The image of the 20-something entrepreneur obscures the trends that have persisted for a decade," Stangler says.
The older-entrepreneur phenomenon predates the current recession. For example, a Kauffman survey of 5,000 firms started in 2004 showed that 18% of the founders were 55 or older.
The migration of older workers to self-employment helps explain a seeming anomaly in the job numbers. Even as their unemployment rate grows, so too does the total employment of those 55 and older.
The newly self-employed are helping drive those employment numbers up, says Sara Rix, an economics analyst at AARP's Public Policy Institute. From December 2007 to June 2009, the total number of older workers in nonagricultural industries rose 2% to 28.4 million, while the subset of older self-employed workers in nonagricultural industries increased by 10% to 2.84 million.
Older folks are taking buyouts, being laid off or coming out of retirement and going to work for themselves. Some are even tapping into their retirement savings to start their own businesses (see "The IRA Job Machine").
Looking forward, these boomer entrepreneurs aren't going to be going back to corporate jobs, Stangler predicts. Rather, they'll be starting another round of businesses, or at least mentoring a new group of entrepreneurs. (If you're starting a new venture, check out the free resources at the Service Corps of Retired Executives at www.score.org for 50-plus entrepreneurs.)
So if you're looking for a silver lining in the latest unemployment numbers, it might be this: According to Stangler, well over half of the largest companies in the U.S. and close to half of the fastest-growing firms were founded during previous recessions or bear markets. "This might be the start of a new entrepreneurial era," he says.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Impact Ventures: A Y Combinator For Canada?
http://yycblogs.com/feeds/yycblog-collection/impact-ventures-y-combinator-canada
techvibes.com
23 hours ago
Student run organization Impact aims to create the next generation of entrepreneurs by connecting people, knowledge, and ideas amongst young entrepreneurial leaders. The non-profit organization has run a variety of events and conferences across Canada that promotes student entrepreneurship. A new announcement from the group sheds some light on an interesting project the Impact organization is putting together in Waterloo.
Impact Ventures was quietly mentioned in the groups June newsletter as a new program which will help talented innovative youth find funding, office space and guidance for new ventures. Impact says the program will be based on the famous Y Combinator model and will provide seed capital to new ventures. The program is launching a pilot in the fall with a full launch coming in 2010. Three to four start ups will take place in a three month pilot of the program which will take place in Waterloo.
It will be interesting to see how this project unfolds, a Canadian Y Combinator style program would be a welcome addition to the entrepreneurial community. Many start ups founded by students struggle to find adequate seed funding and office space there will certainly be no shortage of start ups willing to participate.
techvibes.com
23 hours ago
Student run organization Impact aims to create the next generation of entrepreneurs by connecting people, knowledge, and ideas amongst young entrepreneurial leaders. The non-profit organization has run a variety of events and conferences across Canada that promotes student entrepreneurship. A new announcement from the group sheds some light on an interesting project the Impact organization is putting together in Waterloo.
Impact Ventures was quietly mentioned in the groups June newsletter as a new program which will help talented innovative youth find funding, office space and guidance for new ventures. Impact says the program will be based on the famous Y Combinator model and will provide seed capital to new ventures. The program is launching a pilot in the fall with a full launch coming in 2010. Three to four start ups will take place in a three month pilot of the program which will take place in Waterloo.
It will be interesting to see how this project unfolds, a Canadian Y Combinator style program would be a welcome addition to the entrepreneurial community. Many start ups founded by students struggle to find adequate seed funding and office space there will certainly be no shortage of start ups willing to participate.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Call for Papers for Entrepreneurship Scholars / Kauffman Foundation
Calling All Entrepreneurship Scholars
Over the past decade, study of the field of entrepreneurship has expanded considerably -- both in terms of curriculum offered for students as well as academic research and the volume of data it generates. Two items of interest for those who focus on the latter.
Over at Data Maven, a call for papers has been issued for the Fourth Annual Society for Entrepreneurship Scholars. The conference is being sponsored by Johns Hopkins University and the Kauffman Foundation. The deadline for submission is August 4.
The Kauffman Foundation is also looking to stimulate discussion among the research community with its new Kauffman Entrepreneurship Scholars group on Facebook. The group provides an opportunity for members to interact via discussion boards, news posts, link sharing, and other methods to spotlight emerging research and share information.
http://www.entrepreneurship.org/PolicyForum/Blog/post/2009/06/29/Calling-All-Entrepreneurship-Scholars.aspx
Over the past decade, study of the field of entrepreneurship has expanded considerably -- both in terms of curriculum offered for students as well as academic research and the volume of data it generates. Two items of interest for those who focus on the latter.
Over at Data Maven, a call for papers has been issued for the Fourth Annual Society for Entrepreneurship Scholars. The conference is being sponsored by Johns Hopkins University and the Kauffman Foundation. The deadline for submission is August 4.
The Kauffman Foundation is also looking to stimulate discussion among the research community with its new Kauffman Entrepreneurship Scholars group on Facebook. The group provides an opportunity for members to interact via discussion boards, news posts, link sharing, and other methods to spotlight emerging research and share information.
http://www.entrepreneurship.org/PolicyForum/Blog/post/2009/06/29/Calling-All-Entrepreneurship-Scholars.aspx
Entrepreneurship Summer Camp for ages 10-13
Please view the information below and feel free to spread the word re: space availability at the “Be Your Own Boss” summer camp for youth, ages 10 – 13. The event runs from August 10 – 14 in Williamston, Michigan.
Camp Pa-Wa-Pi Summer Camp now offers Be Your Own Boss program. Camp Pa-Wa-Pi Summer Camp is administered by the YMCA of Lansing Parkwood Branch. It is located on 52 acres in Williamston on Grand River Avenue. The Be Your Own Boss camp for youth ages 10-13, will run through August 10-14, 2009 and is led by Michigan State University Extension Ingham County, as well as the Parkwood YMCA, and the Meridian Area Business Association (MABA). For more information and to register online please visit the YMCA Web site at http://camppawapi.org/adventure_camps.htm.
Camp Pa-Wa-Pi Summer Camp now offers Be Your Own Boss program. Camp Pa-Wa-Pi Summer Camp is administered by the YMCA of Lansing Parkwood Branch. It is located on 52 acres in Williamston on Grand River Avenue. The Be Your Own Boss camp for youth ages 10-13, will run through August 10-14, 2009 and is led by Michigan State University Extension Ingham County, as well as the Parkwood YMCA, and the Meridian Area Business Association (MABA). For more information and to register online please visit the YMCA Web site at http://camppawapi.org/adventure_camps.htm.
SCORE eNews - July, 2009
http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001aqj1QInodGSO1hbTIwE8lyAZZ21e4ucgP7ljaTUO8FrS8DDLhvrQ01jilLLG8OaTiJj3aG1HSA4np155wMqUeFJAKr_4xnBu-1-o35N-JDGpWPpOLxD8anGOYJzkgTk07JndgFxCMnNtw8ID3vyJs7_ooiW0JZ-mzodNkbQWd0kEUG1bUdh6ju8E9eDjJf4ceFiExQ-C-NNzzc5reOWcPnua-fWeTsbFxR9CC8N2mZEO34Q7SkS_MV-1m5_rgyJAO_pj5dFII5Mat-UBbT8m2xDGSMpvCkwYxGXGC8xf9hzPQSpN_glgdrC4UjrVzmnHJOyfIls29gluZ8LnvRLHTcd3hGy9iNbO
Good information from the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a mentoring and business support organization.
Good information from the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a mentoring and business support organization.
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