As the broader society debates the fundamental question of economic opportunity vs. economic equality, the region’s largest philanthropic organization convened a provocative “conversation” last month that challenged participants to transform New Haven into a place where opportunity and economic well-being are treated as essential community assets to be shared by all. “Cities like New Haven […]
As the broader society debates the fundamental question of economic opportunity vs. economic equality, the region’s largest philanthropic organization convened a provocative “conversation” last month that challenged participants to transform New Haven into a place where opportunity and economic well-being are treated as essential community assets to be shared by all.
“Cities like New Haven can be laboratories of place-based inclusive entrepreneurship.”
So asserted Christopher Gergen, co-founder and CEO of North Carolina-based Forward Cities, a national network of communities seeking to stimulate and nurture greater entrepreneurial activity, particularly within minority communities. New Haven joined the Forward Cities roster in May.
Gergen was a panelist in a conversion titled “Creating Opportunity Through an Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.” The breakout session was part of a conference, Creating a Future of Opportunity, convened by the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.
On the national level, Gergen said, there are 2.6 million enterprises owned by African-Americans — but 90 percent are sole proprietorships. And in Connecticut, he added, white business owners are 19 times more likely to employ workers than their minority counterparts.
That disparity is of course reflective of the larger income gap in Connecticut and beyond. In New Haven County, Gergen said, the poverty rate among its 860,000 residents is 11 percent, but in the urban centers of New Haven and Waterbury, that figure approaches 60 percent. And the rate of business starts by minority entrepreneurs in New Haven pales in comparison to their peers in cities like Buffalo, N.Y. and Pittsburgh.
Margaret Lee and Caroline Smith founded Collab, an entrepreneurship incubator/accelerator that focuses on building new companies, were joined on the panel by Peter Hurst, president and CEO of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council.
Hurst’s group seeks to link minority-owned companies throughout New England not only to one another, but especially to larger companies to which they may supply goods and services. Minority-owned companies “need financial capital, they need intellectual capital — but most of all they need contracts,” Hurst said.
