Ben Selden

I began my career at a nonprofit in Boston, MA that provided low-cost loans and technical assistance to low-income individuals, with a particular focus on cooperatively-owned businesses. I learned firsthand about the unique challenges that small business owners face: particularly immigrants, women, and people of color.

Today, I help manage and run a pilot grant program for the SBA called "Community Navigators." This program supports hundreds of nonprofits across the country, who work with small businesses and entrepreneurs in historically underserved and underrepresented areas. This program is all about making government resources more equitable and accessible.

After spending much of the last year working from home, I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference for one of our grantees, the U.S. Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC). The conference included a celebration of the work done so far not just by USPAACC, but by other grantees in attendance. It was great to meet some of the Community Navigators face-to-face and hear the stories of those they've helped, as well as their feedback and suggestions about the program. We are striving for constant improvement and we've made a real effort to abide by the principles of human-centered design. While there is always more work to be done, that event was a nice moment of connection -- hopefully the first of many more!