AMBLER, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A new center opening up at the Temple University Ambler campus is looking to provide business training for new companies, and it’s free for veterans.

It’s called the Outreach Center, and it is an incubator for new businesses created by veterans.

Maura Shenker, director of the Small Business Development Center, says one of the problems for veterans is a lack of a good credit history.

“A lot of ways that civilians build credit: buying a car, buying a house, paying their cable bill on time, paying power companies on time, you know building a credit history, people in the military just don’t have those opportunities,” she said.

Shenker says the center will give trainees not only office space, including computers, printers and Wi-Fi, but also alternatives to traditional bank loans.

“Such as CDFI’s, and that stands for Community Development Financial Institutions,” she said. “They’re basically nonprofit banks that can do what’s called a character loan, meaning instead of just looking at your credit score, they look at your whole personal history.”

Applications will be accepted from now through the end of May.

Originally posted by Kim Glovas for KYW