Building A Multi-City Small Business Accelerator Using NLC Technical Assistance Programs

By:

Samantha Pedrosa
Justin Chu

November 5, 2026 - (5 min read)

Every year, the National League of Cities launches Technical Assistance (TA) programs across a variety of topics that align with local government services. These time-limited opportunities often involve coaching and implementation support that helps cities move from planning to sustained action. Sometimes, during the course of one TA opportunity, a municipality will learn about others and begin to combine programs towards one larger local initiative. This knock-on “NLC Effect” can stack successes across different programmatic and policy areas.

One example of this is the City of Antioch, Calif. (pop. 115,291). Over the course of three years, they were able to utilize resources from three NLC programs and engagements across the economic development, entrepreneurship and financial empowerment fields. In the process, the City expanded their entrepreneurship and small business support efforts from city-lead effort to a county-wide program. This story showcases how continued NLC engagement can impact a community’s ability to build out large scale initiative by utilizing different opportunities to shape the economic mobility of their residents.

Building the Foundation with Economic Recovery Corps

In 2023, NLC launched applications for the Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) program, a national program across six organizations, led by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in partnership with NLC. The ERC program, funded under the CARES Act, was a national program designed to accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in 65 host regions throughout the country. This was done by connecting communities with mid-career professionals, ERC Fellows, who could add capacity to their rehabilitation efforts over a 30-month period. Of the regional governments, non-profits and economic development organizations who applied, the City of Antioch was among those selected. The city was matched with a fellow who was tasked with learning about the community, engaging residents and building their proposed initiative from the ground up.

The City of Antioch’s application sought to address a core concern of their local economic development structure: despite being just an hour away from Silicon Valley, they were perceived as a bedroom community where residents lived but did not work or play. Through a series of workplan discussions with ERC leaders, the city identified business collaboration and the lack of small business support resources as issues affecting its local economy.

To combat these challenges, the city pursued a multi-faceted approach, including the creation of the Antioch Business Collaborative (ABC) in 2024. The inspiration for the model was developed by then Acting City Manager/Economic Development Director Kwame Reed who wanted an approach that reached each need of the community. In addition, Economic Development Manager Bret Alexander Sweet wanted to use a portfolio approach adapted from his time in venture capital to remove competition amongst providers. Leveraging a hub-and-spoke system, the Antioch Business Collaborative consists of eight organizations with specific expertise to support small businesses and nonprofits. In the first two years of the ABC, the group assisted more than 400 businesses, facilitated the creation of 76 businesses and supported approximately 496 jobs.

Gaining Traction with the Advancing Economic Mobility Grant

With the initial successes of ABC, Antioch applied for and received NLC’s 2025 Advancing Economic Mobility Rapid Grant. Through this six-month grant, awardees received $20,000 towards supporting economic mobility for residents. NLC also provided hands on TA through coaching calls, access to a peer network and training from national organizations With these additional resources, the city supercharged their efforts through the “Work Together Fund” pilot in which Antioch’s small business and nonprofit community pitched collaborative programs that improved job creation within the city. These new pilot projects expanded on the ABC initial successes by providing opportunities for small businesses and nonprofits to work collaboratively after years of silos and under-investment.

Through the pilot, a total of three projects were accepted with funds ranging from $5,000 – $8,000. With these investments, the city supported new business opportunities such as a makerspace , a downtown activation and a financial literacy course for residents and entrepreneurs. These projects, funded by the economic mobility rapid grant, expanded on the learnings of the first year of the ERC Fellow‘s work with the ABC while providing a model for successful collaborations and partnership across different local entities.

Inspired into Expansion at the Local Economic Futures Forum

In February 2026, NLC hosted the Local Economic Futures Forum, an event for municipal leaders across several TA programs to come together and discuss economic shifts and trends at the local level. Here, the Antioch representatives learned about the Opportunity Zone in the “Research Triangle” area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, N.C., where existing anchor institutions work with local governments and other key stakeholders to create investments in low-income communities.

This tri-city collaboration inspired the Antioch team to launch a similar model in their home county of Contra Costa. They explored regional collaborations with learning sessions, engagements and coalition-building activities before securing new partnerships. The new initiative launched in July 2026 with more than 80 stakeholders participating in the kick-off event.

To realize this vision, the City of Antioch and their staffers identified their challenges and continually engaged with NLC staff and programs to meet them. Their team engaged with a variety of programs across NLC to springboard their impact. By utilizing the breadth of experience across NLC resources, Antioch and the surrounding communities have begun to reap the rewards of the “NLC Effect” to grow their local economies.

Technical Assistance at NLC

What is technical assistance? At its core, technical assistance is about capacity building. While it may begin with addressing a specific challenge or initiative, the long-term goal is to help cities strengthen their ability to plan, implement and sustain solutions on their own.

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