TITLE: Title
Donation of $2,500 for Minority Owned Businesses to Join the Carrboro Business Alliance (CBA)
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Town Council to consider funding $2,500 to support minority-owned businesses that would like to join the CBA.
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DEPARTMENT: Economic Development
CONTACT INFORMATION: Betsy Bertram, Interim Economic Development Director
INFORMATION: David Jessee, chair of the Carrboro Business Alliance, drafted the following letter:
On behalf of the Carrboro Business Alliance (CBA) Leadership Council, I want to thank you for your strong and sincere commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive community.
The CBA is inspired by your vision and has set a specific goal of recruiting at least ten more minority-owned businesses into our network this year.
We have already secured a private sector donation that will allow us to scholarship five minority-owned businesses and into the CBA with full membership benefits. We would like to invite the town to match this with a $2,500 contribution that will allow us to provide five more scholarships. Together, this public-private contribution will catapult us towards the goal of welcoming at least ten minority-owned businesses into the CBA this year.
We believe that the challenges we are living in today make access to the CBA more important than ever. At the same time, we recognize that the current CBA membership lacks the full diversity that we desire and need to best reflect the community we serve. While we have strong local business representation across industries and with many women-owned businesses, we do not have sufficient voice from minority-owned businesses. We want to do better.
Thank you for considering this request to help us intentionally bring more diverse local business voices to the table.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: The $2,500 donation to the CBA will positively impact diversifying the Carrboro Business Alliance and will be ...
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