Power Forward: Black Business Conference
Power Forward: Black Business Conference 2021, hosted by Brooklyn Women Business Centers, features Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams
Brooklyn, New York (February 23, 2021)— Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network’s Brooklyn/Staten Island Women’s Business Center (WBC), in partnership with the Local Development Corporation of East New York (LDCENY) Brooklyn Women’s Business Center and the Small Business Administration (SBA), hosted the first ever Power Forward: Black Business Conference on Thursday. The Honorable Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams joined to address nearly 200 small business owners.
Power Forward: Black Business Conference was a joint effort. Co-host, Delia A. Awusi, was recently selected as a Crain’s 2021 Notable Black Leader and Executive for her work designing programs to help women in business, particularly women of color and those in underserved communities throughout New York City. As BOC Brooklyn Women’s Business Center Director, Awusi was inspired to build the Power Forward: Black Business Conference together with Camille Newman, WBC Director at LDCENY, after witnessing how traumatic the past year has been for her community and clients.
“2020 was an especially painful year for the Black community. From COVID-19 and its disproportionate impact on Black lives, businesses, and jobs, to the racial unrests due to deep seated systemic racism, we knew we needed to host an event specifically for Black businesses to network, hear from Black Leaders, learn from Black experts, and be inspired by Black businesses who are powering forward,” said Delia A. Awusi, BOC WBC Director and event co-host.
With COVID-19 pushing businesses to transition quickly, BOC WBC is proud to have been able to intensify business counseling and create virtual services to help small businesses access relief funding and ongoing support. The Power Forward: Black Business Conference was an extension of BOC’s mission to reach businesses with the greatest need for access to resources and support.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) and Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams shared comments on the political landscape for Black businesses and provided encouragement for attendees facing these unprecedented times. Rep. Jeffries’ moving and illuminating remarks put Black entrepreneurship in historical context, recognizing systemic racism and the unique challenges faced by Black businesses and Black entrepreneurship. “Particularly during Black history month— as we navigate challenges we confront in America as well as chart a course forward— Black businesses are going to be a central part of recovering and building back better.” (To read Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams' full remarks, click here.)
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams shared his dedication to addressing community and small business needs along with startling facts. “Only 40 MWBEs applied to the NYC Continuity Loan and, separately, only 4% of women-led firms received [government] contracts,” said Williams. “The pandemic has exposed the inequities we know have been there.”
Attendees also heard from industry leaders like Nana P. Agyekum, CPA of AGY Associates, Derrick Duplessy of the Duplessy Foundation, Roxanne Neilson of the BOC Manhattan Minority Business Development Agency Business Center, Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Laci Chisholm of Fit4Dance and more. In between presenters, attendees heard tunes spun by DJ Fame/Umoja Events and also spent time focusing on wellness with Yoga with Peggy H.
EXCERPTS FROM REP. JEFFRIES REMARKS:
“Our Civil rights leaders recognized that economic success was necessary as a part of achieving true freedom.”
“There are still so many challenges that you [black businesses] uniquely confront and the pandemic has exposed that in an extraordinary way. When the first round of PPP loans were authorized, we recognized that traditional banks have traditional customers and were favoring those traditional clients in ways that were denying the mom and pop, asian, latino, black and woman-owned businesses access to the program we stood up for you. In the second round we set aside PPP funds for CDFI's like BOC Capital and women-owned banks, minority-owned banks, and community banks.”
“We believe that the best is yet to come and high on the prior list for the congressional Black Caucus in our 50th year is to deal with the vestiges of systemic racism under law and with in the criminal justice system, but we will not be successful in lifting up the black community unless we stand up for black entrepreneurship.That is the lesson of reconstruction and that is the lesson of the civil rights movement. It is unfinished business, but I am confident we are going to get it done and we will continue toward a more perfect union.”
For the full Power Forward address from Congressman Jeffries, click here.
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ABOUT BOC Brooklyn WBC: BOC’s mission is to improve the economic prospects of traditionally under-served entrepreneurs and their communities. As a program within BOC Network, the BOC Brooklyn WBC is a collection of free resources such as 1-1 business counseling, training and access to capital, legal and accounting resources for women, aspiring entrepreneurs and current business owners. BOC Brooklyn WBC strives to provide accessible and equitable opportunities to individuals in New York looking to carve out their own industry spaces.
ABOUT BOC CAPITAL CORP: BOC Capital Corp., founded in 2001, is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) dedicated to providing financing to small business owners, with a special focus on women, minority, and immigrant entrepreneurs. BCC is an SBA PPP lender. BOC Capital provides flexible, customized loans - as well as ongoing business development assistance - to help with everything from supporting a new business, to taking an existing local business to the next level. In response to COVID-19, BOC Capital is providing low-cost financing to support small business recovery. For more information, visit: www.boccapital.org.
ABOUT BUSINESS OUTREACH CENTER NETWORK: The Business Outreach Center (BOC) Network is a micro-enterprise and small business development organization with a two-decade-long record of delivering customized business services to diverse entrepreneurs in the New York City metropolitan area, as well as capacity-building services to organizations establishing and operating community and micro-enterprise development programs. BOC Network is dedicated to inclusive economic development and community wealth creation. Its mission is to improve the economic prospects of traditionally underserved groups, and thereby create genuinely brighter futures. For more information, visit: www.bocnet.org.