About Us
What We Do |
Vision & Mission
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History
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Partners |
Staff
Our History:
In 1997, four
outstanding Cobb County organizations came together to
address economic development for low- to moderate-income
residents of Cobb County Georgia and surrounding Metro
Atlanta Counties. No longer content to limit their
assistance to crisis intervention, they sought a venue to
eradicate the cycle of poverty. These four organizations:
Center for Family Resources; YWCA of Northwest Georgia;
Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University; and
the United Way in Cobb spent twelve months training with
national experts from the economic development division of
GCAPP (Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention), learning how to develop and implement a program
for microbusiness development. Each of these four partners
made a generous in-kind contribution of space, staff for
program components, and resources to develop and launch The
Cobb Microenterprise Council, the first community
microenterprise model in the United States.
During our
strategic planning update in August 2005, our Board of
Directors chose to create a new image and marketing
direction to keep pace with our enormous growth and extended
delivery of services into 25 metro and rural counties. Our
new name and brand became The Edge Connection…empowering and
developing Georgia's entrepreneurs.
Through the SBA
Women's Business Center, we were able to build capacity and
expand our numbers served.
We continue with
our mission to provide training and technical assistance to
low- to moderate-income entrepreneurs desiring to launch,
sustain, or grow a micro or small business.
The Enterprise
Center, The Edge Connection’s new 30,000 square foot
facility, will include our offices and classrooms, up to
forty business incubator offices, and a commercial culinary
kitchen and production center. We broke ground in June, 2008
and plan to open our doors in February, 2009.
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