Fullerton- California Senator Josh Newman secures funds for the NorthSTAR OC Collaborative to build the social enterprise ecosystem and illuminate pathways to entrepreneurship for under-represented and under-resourced communities in North Orange County.
RevHubOC, a California Social Purpose Corporation, along with partners the Orange County MultiEthnic Collaborative of Community Agencies (OC MECCA), OneOC, the Center for Entrepreneurship at Cal State Fullerton, the North Orange County Community College District, the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, CIELO, Advance OC and the Social Science Research Center at Cal State Fullerton, announced today an $8.5 million grant through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and Senator Josh Newman (CA-29th District). The grant is for building the social enterprise ecosystem and creating illuminated pathways to entrepreneurship for under-represented and under-resourced communities.
Social enterprises are mission-driven, for-profit businesses addressing environmental and social challenges, such as climate change, affordable housing, educational inequities, and equitable food and agriculture systems. The NorthSTAR OC Collaborative (STAR is an acronym for Systems To Access Resources) pulls together funding, mentoring, and comprehensive resources for social innovators to explore and create new business ideas, develop ideas into viable ventures, and scale ventures into impact-ready, investable social enterprises.
NorthSTAR OC will also address inequities in startup support and capital through outreach and engagement, business exploration, ideation, and incubation in under-resourced communities. These efforts will expand beyond social enterprises to all forms of new business creation, from small side-businesses to scalable technology ventures.
Programming will include workshops, webinars, Neighborhood Hub centers, trainings, individual mentoring, counseling and navigation, incubation, acceleration, early-stage non-dilutive capital, proof-of-concept funding, and access to investment capital.
