WENTWORTH – Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship) has been launched in North Carolina.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, GATE provides training andcoaching to help laid-off rural workers start their own smallbusinesses.
GATE is not a grant program. It is a scholarship program with up to 750 scholarships likely to be awarded in North Carolina.
“This program has the potential to do far more than provide a sourceof income for individuals who’ve lost jobs,” said Billy Ray Hall,president of the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center. “It can helpus build homegrown economies in struggling communities all across thestate.”
In North Carolina, the project is a cooperative effort between theN.C. Department of Commerce, N.C. Community College System, EmploymentSecurity Commission of North Carolina, North Carolina REAL Enterprises,local JobLink Career Centers and the NC Rural Center.
Eight community colleges, including Rockingham Community College,have been selected as primary GATE sites. At RCC, the Small BusinessCenter in the Bishopric Lifelong Learning Center, is partnering withthe JobLink Career Center to provide GATE services.
Services include assessment of entrepreneurial skills, business andentrepreneurship courses, one-on-one business counseling, introductionto other resource professionals, and help applying for amicroenterprise loan upon completion of a workable business plan.
Applicants to the program must be dislocated workers — those wholost their job because of a business closing or layoff — and beeligible for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program.
For information about the program, contact Debi Joyce at 342-4261,ext. 2349, visit the local JobLink Career Center at the NC EmploymentSecurity Commission in Wentworth, go online to www.ncprojectgate.org, or call 1-877-9NC-GATE.
SOURCE: NEWS-RECORD