REAP Receives National Excellence Award

The Center’s Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP) Women’s Business Center received the first place “Excellence in Microenterprise Work with Women Entrepreneurs” award from the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) for its work in the Women & Company Microenterprise Boost Program. This was the top award made to local program partners across the nation in 2005.

The Women and Company Microenterprise Boost Program was designed to provide low and moderate-income women micro-entrepreneurs the opportunity to achieve greater business success by providing cash awards that have a measurable impact on the development of their business.

A grant from the Citigroup Foundation provided the funding. The project was managed by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a national membership association representing hundreds of microenterprise development programs across the country. Women and Company, a division of Citigroup that provides access to financial education and resources for women, worked with AEO to implement and promote the program.

Excellence awards to local partners were based on project management, success stories, and measurable business impacts. Congratulations to REAP for its award and to REAP’s boost awardees during this first year! The women business owners who participated with REAP were just a great bunch of gals to work with.

REAP has submitted an application, and we hope to be selected once again as a program partner in 2006. A majority of the success stories written about the ’05 program participants have appeared in the REAP UPDATE newsletter and can be found on our website.