There’s one more day for small biz owners to apply for CCP’s community-focused accelerator

Community College of Philadelphia is currently accepting applications for the second cohort of its 12-week accelerator for small business owners.

The PHL Community Startup Accelerator is a collaboration between CCP’s Power Up Your Business program and the Lancaster Avenue 21st Century CDC. The accelerator aims to give entrepreneurs business training and technical support to build sustainable and scalable business models. Minority and immigrant entrepreneurs are particularly encouraged to apply, CCP said.

Cohort participants will meet for three hours, once a week for 12 weeks. The accelerator offers each entrepreneur a coach to guide them through the training, as well as access to legal, accounting, HR, branding and marketing pros. The program will also help entrepreneurs connect with funders and will offer business development workshops and other resources from its partner organizations.

The deadline to apply is Friday, Feb. 12, and classes start Monday, Feb. 22.

Power Up Your Business is CCP’s neighborhood-based approach to economic development that offers free training to small businesses. In September, it was one of four local programs to share $180,000 in recent grant funding from AT&T designed to support Black and brown entrepreneurs. CCP received $80,000 to fund two cohorts of the PHL Community Startup Accelerator, with an aim to help 30 entrepreneurs at the launch or growth stages.

“The College will focus on commercial corridor and other neighborhood-based businesses that define our communities across the city,” Power Up’s page reads. “As an institution with three neighborhood-based regional centers and a central Main Campus, the college is in a unique position to serve Philadelphia’s small business community.