What We've Built

In March 2024, President Tina M. King sparked an ambitious vision to establish a brand-new Business Resource Center (BRC) at the San Diego College of Continuing Education (SDCCE). Through the support of the San Diego College of Continuing Education Foundation (SDCCEF) and The Program Labs the center opened in April 2025. The Business Resource Center is dedicated to serving as a community hub for entrepreneurs to receive guidance and work on their businesses. The Resource Center aims to be a catalyst for economic empowerment and community connectivity.

The Jacobs Center Business Accelerator (formerly CONNECT ALL @ The Jacobs Center) is the regions first and only business accelerator program focused on low-to-moderate income residents of the City of San Diego. The program was an innovative partnership with the City of San Diego, the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation and CONNECT. Since inception the program has graduated over 120 businesses from the intensive 4-month program. Alumni have raised over $3M in capital from investments (equity and debt) and created/retained 40 jobs in the San Diego region. The founders have reported having more confidence and many have already started a second business using the learnings and strategies from the program. The Executive Director of the Program Labs was the chief architect of the program. He created the program, schedule, modular content delivery design, assessments, and feedback cycle for continuous improvement. This is an example of the type of economic development programming we can create for you.

The Creators Studio is a content creation space with state of the art audio and video equipment for the community. From conception to implementation, this is an example of how to leverage existing grant dollars to create something new and innovative. Through conversations with funders we were able to reallocate dollars in order to update the physical space and purchase equipment for podcasting, video creation, and editing. Over the course of 6-months the rooms were updated and opened to the public to use free of charge. In addition, with the launch of the space were a series of workshops focused on training individuals how to use the equipment with guest speakers from KPBS, Buenpaso Media, and Brentforde Media.

The Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation was an economic development program focused on connecting downtown with UC San Diego university community. Through a collaboration with the Downtown San Diego Partnership, The City of San Diego, and UC San Diego. The program curated 6-to-8 week workshops for early-stage entrepreneurs and business owners in the creative industries. In addition, the program provided a platform for the community to engage with Faculty and Staff to learn about UC San Diego.