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Regional economic fellow outlines program to boost women entrepreneurs in Allegany County and surrounding counties
Summary
A 30-month EDA/IEDC fellowship hosted at Southern Tier West will focus on place-based entrepreneurial supports, addressing the gender gap, a resource-navigation website, succession planning and employee ownership pilots across several counties including Allegany County.
A regional economic-recovery fellow told the Allegany County Planning and Economic Development Committee on May 21 that a 30-month program hosted by Southern Tier West will deliver place-based support for entrepreneurs and focus in part on closing the women-entrepreneur gap in the region.
Megan, an economic-recovery fellow working with Southern Tier West under a fellowship with the Economic Development Administration and the International Economic Development Council, said the fellowship was selected nationally and runs for 30 months. "One of my primary focus is addressing the women entrepreneur gender gap in my area," Megan said, describing efforts to conduct focus groups and informational interviews with women business owners.
Megan told the committee she has a goal to interview about 100 entrepreneurs across the program footprint and reported she had completed 65 interviews so far. She said county-specific approaches are in development: in Allegany County the fellow is working on succession planning and employee-ownership training with local economic development staff; in Cattaraugus County a $1,000,000 grant over four years from the Ralph Wilson Foundation was described as supporting a cross-sector team; in Chautauqua County the fellow is assisting local groups with market analyses and retail technical assistance.
The fellow also described work to build a resource-navigation website to help entrepreneurs find local supports and discussed using data and emerging tools such as AI to analyze and synthesize dozens of municipal comprehensive plans to inform regional strategies. "How can we better foster those connections at a regional level to encourage collaboration?" Megan asked, urging shared learning among municipalities.
Megan said succession planning is another priority: "On average, we have older entrepreneurs in there. For instance, in Allegany County, almost 40% are 55 and older," she said, and suggested employee ownership models as one option for keeping businesses and wealth local. She also invited committee members to the Southern Tier West local government conference on June 5.
Committee members had no questions at the meeting; Megan confirmed she shared her PowerPoint with staff and said she would welcome follow-up contacts.
