Recognition of BOCNET's Work

BOC Recognition

The BOC Network has been recognized and praised extensively for both its model and its accomplishments.

For example, in 2001, the BOC Network was an awardee under the U.S. Small Business Administration Program for Investment in Microenterprise (PRIME).

In addition, a study sponsored by the Ford, MacArthur, and Casey Foundations, Networking Across Boundaries, and the Sage Publications book Workforce Development Networks cited the BOC Network as one of only a dozen economic development models nationwide "worthy of study and replication."

It is a view echoed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s 1998 BusinessLINC report, which highlighted the BOC Network as a model economic development program.

None of this would surprise the many clients and communities the Network serves.

Nor would it surprise CNN, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily News, and Newsday, all of which have praised the BOC Network’s work.

National Minority Business
Council Award

BOC Network received The Charles T. Haffey Community Service Award at The National Minority Business Council, Inc., Annual Business Awards Luncheon, on February 16, 2005 at the New York Marriott Marque Hotel. The award signified BOC's record of service to minority and women owned businesses in all five boroughs and Newark, NJ. "We are pleased to renew our commitment to our mission of achieving economic parity for women and minority owned firms by leveling the business playing field and assuring that hard work, ambition, integrity, determination, dedication, and intelligence are duly rewarded, regardless of gender or ethinicity," said Gregory L. Reid, ESQ., chairman of the NMBC Board of Directors.

SBA Award

BOC Network Board Member Geri Jasper, during her tenure as BOC CFO and Program Director, was awarded the 2001 Small Business Administration's Women in Small Business Advocate of the Year Award (NY District).

From Crain's NY Business

BOC is "a unique non-profit network that... has been quietly helping small businesses in New York. It's simple premise is that, while there are dozens of programs in the city to help companies grow, few small businesses know of their existence, have the skills to access them, or even know which programs to use. The...affiliated centers of the Business Outreach Center Network bridge the gap between these programs and the small business com-munity—at no charge to the businesses that seek them out. Because BOC staffers intimately know the communities they serve, they are able to overcome many of the cultural and linguistic barriers to entrepreneurship here. So successful have the BOCs been that the concept...is being eyed as a model for national small business development."