Overview
Onondaga Co. Executive Joanne Mahoney speaks with participants of the Start-Up NY/Inclusive Entrepreneurship program. Mahoney says the program is a perfect example of Syracuse University’s notion of Scholarship in Action—reaching beyond the campus to create a positive impact in the community. More photos
Start-Up NY/Inclusive Entrepreneurship helps people with disabilities and/or economic disadvantages obtain the training and business development resources needed to establish, grow, and sustain successful business ventures. Start-Up NY and its Inclusive Entrepreneurship process builds upon a three-year demonstration grant from the US Department of Labor/Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) awarded to Onondaga County, NY and led by the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University (SU) and its partners the SU Whitman School of Management, Onondaga Small Business Development Center, and others. The innovative model includes the following core components:
Acceleration and Scale: Providing training and support to prospective entrepreneurs that help them develop their personal business goals, business feasibility, planning and mentorship to actualize their business ideas and operations and bring them to scale.
Education: Identifying and using resources to help expand high-impact entrepreneurship education by engaging students as consultants to entrepreneurs with disabilities and/or disadvantages in Onondaga County, New York State, and the country and disseminating effective practices that can be used for replication.
Commercialization: Developing partnerships with local business incubators, high-tech, growth and green industry developers as well as with agencies serving people with disabilities to ensure that local economic growth through small business development also includes and benefits from entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Partners
