The South Side Entrepreneurial Connect Project exists to foster economic empowerment of this impoverished yet culturally rich community. The overarching goal of SSECP is to create 100 sustainable ventures on the South Side within five years. We believe this will provide the core foundation upon which subsequent USASBE Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Awards, National Model Specialty Program Syracuse University 2 economic and social development can occur in the community. Through an integrated approach to entrepreneurial development, we are working to accomplish the following six operational goals:

• Create a sustainable infrastructure that will ensure ongoing and long-term entrepreneurial development, including a South Side Entrepreneurs Association, a South Side Incubator, a South Side Microcredit Fund, a South Side Resource Network, and an SSECP Board of Advisors.
• Foster at least ten new start-ups per year on the South Side.
• Assist up to thirty established entrepreneurs per year in stabilizing and growing their ventures.
• Contribute meaningful to the creation of a culture of entrepreneurship on the South Side.
• Ensure that more consumer dollars that originate in the South Side are spent in the South Side, and that there is meaningful increase in dollars flowing in from outside the South Side.
• Create substantive experiential learning opportunities that involve rich field experiences on the South Side for at least 150 students per year, and involving at least 25 faculty from an array of different disciplines and
  departments on the Syracuse campus.

We believe that accomplishment of these goals will ultimately produce jobs, income, and opportunity for large numbers of South Side residents. Our interest is in ventures and entrepreneurs who are committed to the South Side, such that success will find them not moving out, but further investing in the community.