This bill amends the Small Business Act to require the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), working with the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, to provide re-entry entrepreneurship counseling and training nationwide for people formerly incarcerated in a Federal prison (called "covered individuals"). Services must include mentoring, workshops, and instructional videos tailored to covered individuals; help drafting a skills profile, business plan, and transition plan; help identifying sources of capital and local small business resources; and regular individualized mentoring over the course of a year. SCORE must survey covered individuals about their satisfaction. The Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator must report to the House and Senate Small Business committees within one year of enactment and annually after that on program performance and effectiveness. Reports must include the number of covered individuals mentored, hours of mentorship, recipient demographics (age, gender, race, ethnicity), survey summaries, and any additional information the Administrator chooses to include.
If you are a person who was formerly incarcerated in a Federal prison, this bill would require SCORE to offer entrepreneurship training and one-on-one mentoring over about a year. Services named in the bill include help making a business plan and transition plan, finding local small business support, and identifying possible sources of startup capital. The program would also collect feedback from participants through surveys.
No publicly available information on program costs, funding sources, or appropriations is included in the bill text provided. The bill does not specify how the services would be funded.
The bill states its goal is to give covered individuals tools, skills, and knowledge to identify business opportunities and to start or expand a small business. Required services listed in the bill include mentoring, workshops, instructional materials, assistance finding capital and local resources, and annual reporting on program activity and participant demographics.
No publicly available information.