Inclusion

The Minority Business Accelerator2.5+ is pleased to announce that it has helped its first minority business participant secure a business deal. Key General Contractors has begun work on a renovation project for The Sherwin-Williams Co. on the ninth floor of the Republic Building in Landmark Towers. The contract is estimated at $165,000.

The Accelerator connects African American- and Hispanic-owned businesses with significant business opportunities and it helps prepare the companies to fully take advantage of those opportunities. The Accelerator focuses on helping companies with $2.5 million or more of revenue.

The accelerator is working to identify and assist minority companies secure contracts totaling more than $23.4 million, including:

• A nonprofit group sourcing organization is seeking a variety of Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) to provide products and services. MBEs must be able to service a 16-county area of Northeast Ohio.
• Ongoing renovation projects for Cleveland-based corporation-immediate ($500,000 annual contract.
• Data center cabling-immediate ($3 million contract).
• Lead abatement program-immediate ($400,000 annual contract).
• Asbestos removal, construction and renovation projects-immediate (annual retainer).
• Sanitary sewers and drainage systems construction-immediate ($10 million contract).
• Two facility ADA renovation projects-starting in third quarter 2008 ($3 million and $6 million contracts).
• Roofing, external masonry, flooring, electrical infrastructure (each contract is labor only--$500,000 each)

To learn more about the accelerator visit its web site.

The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C. released a study last year that reported that 86% of all persons serving on nonprofit boards nationwide are white, and only 7% are African-American.

These staggering statistics have raised questions about how well homogeneous groups can serve diverse constituencies. This trend also holds true for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Although the City of Cleveland is comprised of a population that is overwhelmingly minority (primarily African-American and Hispanic/Latino), those serving on the nonprofit boards that serve the most pressing needs of these minority groups are overwhelmingly white.

A lack of diversity on these boards often makes it more difficult for trustees to understand and respond to the critical needs of the minority populations that they serve. It is in this regard that a group of African-American professionals have come together to address this challenge by creating a Minority Board Member Pipeline Initiative.

This group will work with Business Volunteers Unlimited (BVU) and perhaps others in the coming months to offer programs and initiatives that connect emerging minority professionals with nonprofit board service opportunities. Those involved in coordinating this effort include the following:

April Miller Boise, Partner - Thompson Hine

Caprice Bragg, Vice President - The Cleveland Foundation

Stephanie McHenry, President - ShoreBank

Randell McShepard, Vice President - RPM International Inc.

Eddie Taylor, President and CEO - Beverage Dispensing Solutions

Lorna Wisham, Vice President - The Illuminating Company

African-American and Hispanic business owners in Medina, Portage and Summit counties have a new resource to help grow their enterprises. The Partnership for the Minority Business Accelerator is a collaboration among the Akron Urban League, Kent State University and SCORE of Akron. The PMBA provides the education, training, mentoring, networking and and cultural understanding required to significantly increase the success and growth of minority-owned businesses.

The accelerator is a two-year program that provides intensive support for African-American and Hispanic owners of small- to medium-sized businesses. Eligible businesses must be for-profit, at least one year old and with a gross revenue of from $50,000 to $2.5 million. PMBA hopes to fill a gap in Northeast Ohio by providing services to promising, small and medium-sized minority-owned businesses.

Interested businesses can complete an online application at www.pmba1.org or call 234-542-4145 or via email at aulmbdc@aol.com.

A similar accelerator targeted at African-American and Hispanic owned businesses with more than $2.5 million in sales serves all of Northeast Ohio. Information on that accelerator, known as the Minority Business Accelerator +2.5, can be found here.

Last week Laura Ofobike, one of the editorial writers at the Akron Beacon Journal, took a deeper look at two big ideas -- one from Gov. Strickland and one from Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic -- to lower the cost of college and increase the number of Ohioans going to college.

Laura raises several important points, including:

Like any scholarship scheme, the Seniors to Sophomores and the 21st-century Akron plan would require academic eligibility standards. College falls outside the scope of a good many students not so much because they are not capable but because they have not been groomed to get there.

She highlights one program that does help groom disadvantaged students to get ready for college called Project GRAD. The program describes its mission this way:

Helping children from low income families earn their high school diploma is not charity.  It is a way to ensure the future of our communities.

The Dashboard of Economic Indicators provides persuasive evidence that a region's economic health is determined, in part, by its ability to create opportunities for all of its residents to share in economic opportunities. Advance Northeast Ohio calls that growth through racial and economic inclusion.

Laura wrote:

The Commission on Economic Inclusion and the Surety & Fidelity Association of America are launching a six-week course designed to inform minority contractors about improving their company’s operations and making it easier to be bonded or to increase their bonding capacity. The Bonding Prep course, based on the Surety & Fidelity Association’s Model Contractor Development Program, will be held on six consecutive Tuesdays from April 1 through May 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. There is no charge to participants.

Bonding Prep will offer educational and bond-readiness components. The educational modules will cover topics ranging from construction accounting to estimating and project management. The bond readiness component will allow participants to work one-on-one with surety bond professionals, underwriters, and other bond producers to prepare the necessary materials to complete a bond application. During select weeks, local project owners also will be present to discuss current procurement opportunities with their organizations.

If you’re an MBE who’s interested in participating, please call the bonding hotline at (216) 592-2344 or send an e-mail to bonding@gcpartnership.com. A Commission staff person will contact you to follow-up.

Several organizations from throughout the region have united to assist minority-owned enterprises grow. The Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+ is now seeking companies to assist with new business opportunities.

Paula Schleis of the Akron Beacon Journal recently had a short story on the accelerator, which included the following:

The accelerator, with initial funding through a $1 million grant from the Fund for Our Economic Future, will be operated by the Commission on Economic Inclusion, the Hispanic Business Association, JumpStart Inc. and the Northern Ohio Minority Business Council.

The program also will reach out to large Northeast Ohio corporations by encouraging better use of minority-owned suppliers.

''It's essential that we work on both the supply and the demand side of the minority business-development equation, so that the minority supplier and the corporate customer are ready to do business with each other,'' said Andrew Jackson, executive director of the Commission on Economic Inclusion.

Companies interested in finding out how they can participate in the Accelerator should visit its web site. The Accelerator is designed to help companies that already have at least $2.5 million in revenue. Those companies are targeted because they are in a good position to take advantage of new business opportunities identified by the operators of the Accelerator.