Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
RoseAnne Herzog
Edward Wollman
(A program of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living)
James Magyar, Executive Director
2568 Packard Road
Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104
(313) 971-0277
(313) 971-0826 fax
(313) 971-0310 TDD

More than single mothers, more than racial minorities, severely physically disabled people may form the single most impoverished group in America today. Of the 49 million severely disabled Americans, it's estimated that fully two-thirds are unemployed, and that the cost of this unemployment drains $160 billion a year from the national economy.

Despite the reality that these individuals are generally in good health except for their disability, mentally sound, capable of working, and formally protected from employment discrimination by the Americans With Disabilities Act, this simple fact remains: Attitudinal barriers, physical barriers and a powerful sense of opinion that disabled people can't lead productive lives all mitigate against any reasonable hope of dignified employment for many millions of otherwise qualified people.

Now, however, this small program within Ann Arbor's respected Center for Independent Living is beginning to prove that scores of disabled people, just like able-bodied Americans, are fully capable of earning a living as self-employed individuals if they are simply given the basic tools to do so.

This 10-year-old program is virtually one of a kind (although it is mirrored in a national advocacy group, the Disabled Persons Business Association of San Diego, and has begun to be replicated at a half-dozen sites). However, although it works with a different population, it bears some resemblance to a handful of entreprenurial training programs for welfare recipients (WEB in Baltimore and CWEE in Denver) and for troubled youngsters (NFTE in New York City).

Like those programs, SBDC identifies individuals in its target population who are interested in small-business ownership -- or in some cases already own businesses -- but lack the information and skills to succeed without startup assistance. Working with these individuals one-on-one, SBDC provides counseling and training, ranging from market research and preparing a business plan to identifying and taking advantage of incentive programs and resources.

One powerful tool, "Procurement Assistance," informs disabled business owners about government programs that encourage government agencies and corporations to affirmatively seek disabled-owned businesses, as for women-owned and minority businesses, for procurement and sales. In just 2 1/2 years of activity, supervised by a part-time employee, this project already has generated $3.5 million in business for Michigan firms owned by disabled people.

Another SBDC program involves working with state Rehabilitation Services counselors to prepare business plans and conduct market research for individuals undergoing rehabilitation after disabling injuries or illness.

SBDC also sponsors a highly effective mentoring project, in which disabled business owners are partnered with successful business people in similar (but not competitive) businesses for mentoring and ongoing advice. The agency has also published an annual Business Directory listing hundreds of Michigan firms owned by disabled entrepreneurs -- 80 percent of whom, Herzog estimates, have taken advantage of SBDC's services. And, the organization is in the process of organizing (and seeking funding for) a micro-loan program to provide start-up money for new businesses.

In a 1996 report, SBDC estimated that it has helped 110 clients start businesses during the past five years, and helped with the expansion of 60 more. These efforts have created 126 jobs.

Originally established as an independent non-profit organization and later moved under the umbrella of Lansing Community College, SBDC came into its own, Herzog says, after it merged into the Ann Arbor Center For Independent Living in 1994; she and Wollmann are now employees of the Center, and SBDC's $90,000 annual funding (about half of it coming from the Michigan Jobs Commission/Rehabilitation Services) makes up about 10 percent of the Center's $904,000 annual budget.

The Center, itself a model organization in the mold of the independent-living movement that came out of Berkeley in the 1970s, seeks to empower disabled people and to advocate for disability rights, seeking "to replace the perception of disability as tragic with a disability culture promoting pride, power and personal style." The Center's many programs, in addition to SBDC, include counseling in independent living skills, peer counseling, support groups, employment services, and information and referral. One particularly innovative effort, the New Options Trial Independent Living Program, offers severely disabled people a four-month trial in independent living in the nurturing setting of a three-bedroom, barrier-free apartment before they move on to living alone in the community.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

Browse his book, Reinvesting In America, at Amazon.com.

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