2026 Sponsored Economic Agency Pathways
BWWA’s current sponsored pathways help eligible participants strengthen earning capacity, ownership readiness, business resilience, and long-term economic direction.
ONE APPLICATION. CHOOSE ONE PATHWAY.
Applicants complete one comprehensive application and select the pathway that best reflects their current position. Applicants cannot participate in both pathways at the same time. After review, BWWA may recommend a different pathway or funding route based on eligibility, readiness, documentation, fit, and available capacity.
Priority Review: The Next 30 by June 30
BWWA is prioritizing review and enrollment support for 30 qualified applicants who apply by June 30, 2026. Applications remain open afterward as space, funding, eligibility, documentation, and program capacity allow.
Apply → Review → Pathway Match → Enrollment → Sessions → Coaching / Implementation
Hive Pathways™
Career Repositioning & Workforce Advancement
Hive Pathways™ is a sponsored application of BWWA’s Economic Agency Formation™ framework focused on career repositioning, workforce advancement, and earning capacity.
This pathway helps participants recognize what they already carry, strengthen what the current economy requires, communicate their value, activate relationships, and direct their next year with intention. Hive Pathways™ is designed for people who are ready to strengthen how they earn — not only by finding work, but by improving how they understand, position, communicate, and activate their professional value.
Hive Pathways™
Hive Pathways™ is a 90-day career repositioning and workforce advancement pathway. The experience begins with a seven-week classroom series, held one day per week on Wednesdays from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
During the seven classroom sessions, participants work through the core areas of career agency, professional positioning, capability development, AI literacy, relationship activation, interview preparation, and one-year planning.
After the classroom series, participants continue through the remaining portion of the 90-day pathway with coaching, plan completion, support-service planning, referrals, and next-step development. This implementation period gives participants time to finalize their Career Agency Plan, identify resources they may need, explore partner referrals, and clarify the connections or supports that will help them move forward.
By the end of the 90-day pathway, participants are positioned to choose their next step. Depending on their goals, readiness, eligibility, and available opportunities, this may include pursuing employment or career placement, advancing in their current field, strengthening self-employment systems, enrolling in an approved training or certification opportunity, or receiving additional career-placement support and partner referrals through BWWA.
Who Hive Pathways™ Serves
Hive Pathways™ supports adults who are:
Unemployed
Underemployed
Recently laid off
Working below their skill or experience level
Returning to the workforce
Preparing for a major career transition
Seeking stronger professional systems
Independent contractors, sole proprietors, and self-employed workers may also be a strong fit when they need support with workforce fundamentals, professional positioning, administrative systems, technology capacity, and stronger ways to communicate and deliver the value of their work.
Purpose of Hive Pathways™
The purpose of Hive Pathways™ is to help participants strengthen how they earn.
Participants work on professional identity, career positioning, skills, technology, communication, relationships, and planning. The experience helps participants better understand what they bring, what needs to be strengthened, and what next steps can move them toward greater career agency and earning capacity.
Hive Pathways™ is not simply about getting a résumé done and trainng. It is about helping participants build the language, tools, confidence, relationships, and plan needed to reposition themselves for and obtain career placement opportunties.
The goal is to help participants move from uncertainty or under-positioning into stronger career agency, clearer direction, and better-aligned opportunities.
Is Hive Pathways Right for You?
Hive Pathways™ may be a good fit if you are asking questions like:
How do I explain my experience in a stronger way?
How do I reposition myself after a layoff or career gap?
How do I move into better work or better pay?
How do I update my résumé, biography, LinkedIn, or interview language?
How do I use AI and technology responsibly in my job search or workplace?
How do I identify my strengths and transferable skills?
How do I build a real plan for the next year of my career?
Additional Training and Implementation Connections
Depending on fit, eligibility, availability, and the participant’s plan, implementation options may include connections to training, certification, coaching, career placement, or other approved career-development opportunities.
Potential options may include:
Food-manager certification
CNA training
Root Healing 101
Reiki Levels I and II
Advanced AI training
An outside certification identified by the participant
Another approved career-development opportunity
These options are reviewed based on participant fit, eligibility, funding requirements, availability, documentation, and alignment with the participant’s plan.
Funding and Enrollment
Some Hive Pathways™ participants are enrolled through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development or another applicable public funding route.
Funding and eligibility requirements vary. BWWA reviews each application to determine the appropriate participation and funding route.
When state enrollment applies, required identification and Social Security documentation must be provided before enrollment can be completed.
Eligibility and Pathway Fit
Applicants complete one comprehensive sponsored pathways application and select the pathway that best reflects their current position.
BWWA reviews each applicant for:
Eligibility
Readiness
Pathway fit
Documentation
Available capacity
Appropriate funding route
Applicants cannot participate in both Hive Pathways™ and Career to Ownership Institute™ at the same time. After review, BWWA may recommend a different pathway or funding route based on the applicant’s situation and eligibility.
Inclusive Access
BWWA was founded by and centers the economic realities, leadership, and lived experiences of Black women.
Current sponsored opportunities welcome eligible applicants across backgrounds. Selection is based on applicable funding requirements, eligibility, readiness, documentation, pathway fit, and available capacity.
Apply for Hive Pathways™
Apply for Hive Pathways™ if you are ready to reposition your career, strengthen your professional systems, communicate your value, activate relationships, and build a one-year Career Agency Plan.
Priority review is available for qualified applicants who apply by June 30, 2026. Applications may remain open afterward as space, funding, eligibility, documentation, and program capacity allow.
Funding Disclosure
The State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) funded or funded in part this training through a grant. The grant recipient created this training. DEED does not endorse this publicity or training or make guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership of the information herein or elsewhere.
CAREER TO OWNERSHIP INSTITUTE
DIRECT WHAT YOU EARN.
Career to Ownership Institute™ is a sponsored application of Economic Agency Formation™ for established income generators ready to convert earnings, business activity, knowledge, and relationships into stronger ownership, resilience, capital readiness, and long-term economic direction.
Career to Ownership Institute™
Economic Agency & Ownership Strategy
The Career to Ownership Institute™, also known as C2O, is an eight-week experience designed for established professionals and established business owners who are ready to strengthen how they earn, make strategic decisions, build resilience, and move toward long-term ownership.
C2O helps participants move beyond day-to-day income management and into a stronger framework for economic agency, business sustainability, capital readiness, and ownership strategy.
How It Works
C2O meets one day per week for eight weeks. Sessions are held from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM and combine guided instruction, business and income strategy, peer learning, reflection, practical planning, and implementation support.
Participants work through real decisions connected to their career, business, income, operations, leadership, and long-term ownership goals. The experience is designed to be practical and action-oriented, so participants are not simply learning concepts — they are building a plan they can use.
After the eight-week session series, participants may also receive up to 10 hours of coaching to support implementation, decision-making, accountability, and next steps.
Purpose and Intent
The purpose of C2O is to help participants direct what they earn with greater clarity, confidence, and strategy.
For professionals, this may mean strengthening income direction, leadership positioning, ownership readiness, and long-term economic planning.
For business owners, this may mean strengthening revenue strategy, operational resilience, capital readiness, systems, partnerships, and growth priorities.
The intent is to help participants become more prepared to make informed economic decisions, respond to challenges, pursue opportunity, and build a stronger foundation for wealth and ownership.
Blue Line Business Route
The Blue Line Business Route is a specialized entry point into C2O for eligible established businesses located on, near, or materially connected to the Blue Line Light Rail corridor.
This route is designed for businesses that may be impacted by light rail planning, construction, access changes, customer flow shifts, or broader corridor redevelopment. It recognizes that infrastructure projects can create both disruption and opportunity, and that businesses need practical support to prepare, adjust, and remain resilient.
Eligibility and Fit
Eligible businesses must be established, actively operating businesses with a meaningful connection to the Blue Line corridor.
Before entering C2O through the Blue Line Business Route, BWWA reviews each business for stage, corridor connection, eligibility, readiness, and overall fit. Final pathway placement is determined by BWWA based on the business’s operating history, current needs, and connection to the corridor.
Businesses approved for this route complete a specialized Business Impact and Resilience Assessment to help identify risks, needs, opportunities, and support priorities.
The Goal
The goal of the Blue Line Business Route is not only to help businesses respond to disruption, but to help them strengthen their systems, protect their income, and position themselves for long-term sustainability.
Through C2O, business owners receive strategy, coaching, consulting, and planning support designed to help them remain rooted, resilient, and ready for what comes next.
C2O is about more than business survival. It is about economic agency, ownership, and building the capacity to lead through change.
Blue Line Business Resilience Toolkit
The Blue Line Business Resilience Toolkit is a free collection of practical planning tools created to help established businesses prepare for possible changes along the Blue Line corridor.
These tools are designed for business owners who want to think ahead, document potential impacts, protect revenue, communicate with customers, review space and lease decisions, and build a stronger plan for continuity and resilience.
You do not have to be enrolled in C2O to use these tools. They are available as free resources for corridor-connected businesses, community partners, and business owners who want to prepare early and make informed decisions.
How to Use the Toolkit
Start with the Toolkit Info Page to understand the purpose of the tools and how they work together.
Business owners may complete the tools independently, with a business advisor, or with BWWA support if they are participating through the Blue Line Business Route.
The tools can be used one at a time or as a full planning sequence. Together, they help businesses move through four important steps:
Prepare for possible access, customer, construction, or operations changes.
Assess financial, digital, space, household, and business-continuity risks.
Decide whether to stay, adapt, relocate temporarily, relocate permanently, or return after disruption.
Plan next steps through a Twelve-Month Business Resilience Plan.
What’s Included
The toolkit includes:
Construction Readiness Checklist
Stay, Adapt, Relocate, or Return Decision Guide
Customer Retention & Communications Plan
Cash-Flow Stress Test
Digital Revenue & AI Readiness Checklist
Lease, Space & Ownership Options Worksheet
Household Stability Check
Business Impact Documentation Log
Twelve-Month Business Resilience Plan
Important Note
These tools are for planning, reflection, and preparation. Completing a toolkit form does not guarantee funding, enrollment, consulting, or financial support. Businesses seeking additional support through BWWA must complete the appropriate application and eligibility review process.