Legislative Affairs Forum - February 17, 2016

Featuring guest speaker - John Cieslik
John is the Small Business Ombudsman for the State Comptroller’s Office since 2011. One of his responsibilities is promoting the POWER Program which assists businesses in becoming certified as a small or minority-owned business

P.O.W.E.R. is the acronym for Providing Opportunities for Work through Education and Resources

• The program was created through the passing of Senate Bill 269 (Minority Contractor Opportunity Initiative), to provide greater opportunities for minority-owned businesses, female-owned businesses, businesses owned by persons with disabilities, and small businesses to participate in the State procurement process.
• The program is an initiative to ensure that small and minority-owned businesses have the resources they need to compete for and land state contracts through the Small Business Set Aside Program (SBSP) and/or the Business Enterprise Program for Minorities, Females and Persons with Disabilities (BEP).
• The program assists business owners to navigate the Illinois certification and procurement process, provides access to resources, counselors and maintains a data base of businesses to support their efforts to compete for state contracts.
• The program provides ongoing communication, information, support and access to additional resources to businesses as they seek state contracts.