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On Monday, October 7, Senator Stanley Rosenberg announced the award of a $100,000 grant from Commonwealth Corporation to the UMass Donahue Institute on behalf of the Pioneer Valley Enterprise Program (PVEP). A collaboration of public and private economic development agencies in the region, PVEP has offered business training to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1997. In addition to the UMass Donahue Institute, PVEP partners include five Pioneer Valley Community Development Corporations: Franklin County (Greenfield), Hilltown (Chesterfield), Solutions (Holyoke), Quaboag (Palmer), and Valley (Northampton), as well as the Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund and the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center.

Senator Rosenberg made the announcement at a meeting held at Snow Farm, the New England Craft Program in Williamsburg, MA, with PVEP partners and Commonwealth Corporation representatives. The partners presented a report on PVEP’s accomplishments to date, as well as the partnership’s future goals. The group then discussed how the grant would help PVEP partners enhance their ability to deliver business training in their communities.

With this new grant, the Donahue Institute will provide several important services to the organizations that will deliver training. For example, Donahue Institute staff have been working with the Hilltown CDC to develop courses targeted to several sub-sectors of their rural economy in preparation for HCDC’s application for a Community Development Block Grant Ready Resource grant to support their training program.

Peg Ryan, director of entrepreneurial training for Commonwealth Corporation, said of PVEP, “Commonwealth Corporation is pleased to be a partner with the Pioneer Valley Enterprise Program. We believe strongly that entrepreneurial training is a necessary component of a sound workforce and economic development strategy, as well as a method of empowering people to maximize their potential.”

Commonwealth Corporation is a quasi-public, non-profit organization responsible for administering and delivering a wide range of publicly and privately funded economic development and workforce initiatives.