I'm in St. Louis, Missouri meeting with small business owners as part of my last trip of the Year of Travel.
I've visited a lot of communities this year and one theme I've found is that strong small businesses create strong communities. That's because small businesses create jobs, provide services, and bring people together. A lot of small business owners end up being leaders in their communities too.
When I was in New Orleans earlier this year, I met Burnell Cotlon. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of his neighborhood in the Ninth Ward, no one would open a grocery store and the community had nowhere to get fresh food. So Burnell restored a building by hand after watching online videos about how to finish a roof and run electrical wiring. After the grocery store, he built a barber shop, a laundromat, a playground, and an internet café. People like Burnell aren't just business owners -- they hold communities together.
Every community has people like Burnell. The problem is it's not always easy for them to start and build a business, or to find employees with the right skills. This is an area where Facebook can help.
Today we're announcing a new program called Facebook Community Boost to help small businesses in the US grow, and to help more people get the digital skills those businesses need. Since 2011, Facebook has invested more than $1 billion dollars to support small businesses. This is the next step.
We're going to bring Facebook Community Boost to 30 US cities in 2018 -- including St. Louis; Albuquerque; Des Moines; Greenville, South Carolina and Houston. And we'll work with local organizations to make sure we're meeting the specific needs of the communities we invest in.
One of the things I'm most proud of is that 70 million small businesses use Facebook to connect with customers. That's 70 million people who now have access to the same tools the big guys have. Now we need to make it easier for people to start and build new businesses or find jobs and opportunities, and in the process strengthen their communities.
That's what Facebook Community Boost is all about. We want to do more, so share your story and tell us how this program can help your city: http://facebook.com/tellcommunityboost