The START HERE Revolving Loan Fund serves people who have the skills and determination to make it, but who lack the credit history and business track record they need to get traditional financing from a bank.

Get your tickets now for the fourth-annual Farm to Fork Summit Feb. 22, 2022, in Osceola, Missouri at the First Assembly of God Church.

Local food markets keep the 131-year-old Pearl Family Farm going. A new video series on wholesale production features Mike Pearl’s sweet potato crop. Produced by the Beginning Farmer Wholesale Project at West Central Missouri Community Action Agency.

In one year the regional START HERE network has helped 14 new businesses start and launched a range of resources to help rural economies and communities grow. Its “5th Monday” luncheon in Warsaw brought partners together to explore this regional collaboration.

This year on Giving Tuesday November 30, 2021, we invite you to support the New Growth Women’s Business Center. The 15-county WBC is one of only five in the nation that focuses on rural entrepreneurs, men and women.

A major regional workforce study and next steps for funding west central Missouri action were the topic recently of the START HERE Business Acceleration Network’s bimonthly community partner meeting. View recording here.

Through this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), West Central Community Development Corporation (dba New Growth) seeks proposals from qualified firms to develop an application for 2022 Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) certification. The scope of work for this RFP includes consultant guidance on organizational structure for New Growth to operate rural community development and business assistance programs alongside its certified CDFI.

On July 6, it was announced that Tiffany Frost would be the new Director of the New Growth Women’s Business Center (WBC). The New Growth Women’s Business Center advances rural entrepreneurs in all stages of business development and growth.

“If we don’t have affordable housing, our communities can’t move forward.”

A lack of housing options could nip new rural opportunity in the bud. Can the west central Missouri region muster the private-public collaboration and innovation needed to ramp up housing supply? This question is the topic of a “5th Monday” regional networking luncheon 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday May 24.

Strawberries are here! And again this year, friends, family, and neighbors with limited budgets will be able to take locally produced fruits and vegetables home with them thanks to the Double Up Food Bucks Program. Seven farmers’ markets in west central Missouri participate. They are part of a national wave of communities adopting the Double Up Food Bucks approach to helping families, farmers, and communities grow healthy.

Two new Benton county businesses are the latest to get the startup boost they need from a new nonprofit financing resource in west central Missouri: The START HERE Revolving Loan Fund. Both are prime examples of what the START HERE Revolving Loan Fund is designed to do: Support rural businesses that are ready to get going and growing but are too new, too small, or too credit-challenged for traditional bank loans.