Three Connecticut SCORE Chapters Consolidate to Form 'SCORE Western Connecticut’

To better serve the needs of start-up and established small businesses and entrepreneurs who dream of beginning a new business the SCORE Fairfield County, SCORE Western Connecticut and SCORE Northwestern Connecticut chapters have today consolidated into a single chapter under the moniker of SCORE Western Connecticut. As had the trio of chapters, the new chapter will also be part of SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors and a resource partner of the US Small Business Administration.

Ashwani “Ash” Bhaskar, formerly Co-Chair of the Fairfield County Chapter and David Rich, formerly Chair of the Western Connecticut Chapter will serve as Co-Chairs of the new Western Connecticut chapter. In addition to managing SCORE’s support of local small businesses in Fairfield and Litchfield counties, the chapter will also guide the non-profit organization’s presence in nine towns from the western portion of New Haven County including Beacon Falls, Cheshire, Middlebury, Naugatuck, Oxford, Prospect, Southbury, Waterbury and Wolcott.

The newly minted chapter will be powered by the business acumen of nearly 200 business mentor volunteers, professionals spanning a diverse scope of business experiences and industries. In addition to overseeing the mentoring volunteers Mr. Bhaskar and Mr. Rich will be responsible for all educational activities including in-person workshops and webinars, business events co-produced with local partners, as SCORE’s overall support for the local communities served by small businesses across western Connecticut.

Remarked Mr. Bhaskar, “Our Connecticut chapters have historically prided themselves on being dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth, and success of small businesses. Consolidating under a singular banner, we believe the shared resources, inherent knowledge of our savvy volunteers and an unwavering, shared desire to help small businesses throughout Western Connecticut will help even more entrepreneurs overcome various hurdles to reach their goals in 2026 and beyond.”

Noted Mr. Rich, “By combining the Western, Northwestern and Fairfield chapters, we will be strengthening our overall collective ability to deliver SCORE’s mission to foster vibrant small business communities through mentoring and education, and ultimately greater small business impacts. Small business clients who receive 3+ hours of mentoring report higher revenues and increased business growth and are 5 times more likely to stay in business.”

With the SCORE fiscal year ending September 30th, a look at the metrics through August for the combined metrics of the three chapters in 2025 illustrates the ongoing commitment to the Western Connecticut small business communities. To date, the three chapters in total conducted 2017 mentoring sessions with entrepreneurs during the 2024-2025 fiscal year; conducted 107 in-person business workshops generating a cumulative attendance of 1979. As well the trio of chapters held 42 online workshops with 2403 participants.

About SCORE:

SCORE is the nation’s largest network of volunteer business mentors. SCORE has helped more than 17 million entrepreneurs start, grow, or successfully exit their businesses since 1964. Collectively, the three Connecticut chapters that comprise SCORE Western Connecticut, contribute to it now being one of the largest and most active SCORE chapters in the country – providing free mentoring, in-person workshops, and resources to help small businesses thrive.

For more information about SCORE Western Connecticut, to schedule a mentoring session, or to inquire about becoming a volunteer mentor visit:

https://www.score.org/westernconnecticuthttps://www.score.org/westernconnecticut