Business Enterprise Program

Overview

The Business Enterprise Program helps qualified individuals become an entrepreneur by training, licensing, and equipping them to operate a snack bar, cafeteria, rest stop or other vending facility in the state.

The Business Enterprise Program works with SCCB Vocational Rehabilitation counselors and to identify consumers who may qualify to participate in the 16-week training to be a blind licensed vendor.

History

The Business Enterprise Program (BEP) is what it is today because of the Randolph-Sheppard Act. This legislation was enacted June 20, 1936, and gave legally blind people the rights to operate newsstands and food-service venues in federally owned properties. It provided those individuals with gainful, sustaining employment. Forty-eight states now have a Business Enterprise Program.