The business of diversity

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

Are there really no women or people of color in real estate development in the Ithaca area? was the question Tompkins Weekly posed to Rev: Startup Ithaca after the organization put on a panel discussion about the startup economy in Ithaca that included four white males involved in real estate development. Tompkins County, being a diverse area full of organizations and initiatives working to create a more diverse economy, still has some work to do, it would seem, to achieve that goal. But it’s not for a lack of trying.

This diversity-challenged panel was not a true reflection of the Ithaca economy, but it did spark a curiosity about how the local business industry is addressing the need for diversity in all areas of the local economy. So, what is happening in Tompkins County to bring in and support a larger pool of voices and interests? The answer, like the local economy, is layered.

Several years ago, Gladys Brangman was asked by her friend Bob Rossi to help make his new co-working space, The CommonSpot, more diverse. Together they invited dozens of local business leaders of color to a meetup to network and talk about what businesses in the area need. Since then, this network has grown into a full-blown LLC, Business Leaders of Colors (BLOC), that works to connect and advertise its members, offering support and mentorship where possible.

“Realizing that there was an unmet need, was business owners of color do not really have a support system,” Brangman said.

The name started as Business Leaders of Color but added the ‘s’ to make it more inclusive of different identities and nationalities. The network is not only open to people of color, white business owners are welcome to join too. But the goal is to support the minority business owners that needed a network of peers.

This past March BLOC launched its newest version of its website. The website is the organization’s currency. Members who pay a fee get to create a profile on the website that includes their website link. For members who don’t have a website, the directory gives them a web presence. BLOC as an organization is a member of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, so members of BLOC can attend Chamber events for members through that partnership.

“It’s really helping people make connections,” Brangman said. “It’s also about us supporting one another.”

Brangman said she wishes that something like BLOC had been around when she was starting her own business, Integrity Communications. She used the resources she had but with a larger network like what she manages with BLOC, she could have had mentors or at least people who could help her navigate some of the hurdles of starting a business while also being aware of what those hurdles can mean for a person of color. What she hears from her members now is that marketing is one of the most common hurdles, pushing through the noise. For some, Brangman said they are afraid to ask questions because they don’t want others to assume they don’t know what they are talking about or that they aren’t prepared. Using a network like BLOC has given its members a safe and reliable space to learn their peers.

But BLOC is for the businesses that made it, the entrepreneurs that made the leap and are working their way up. Businesses are not solely about founders. Businesses are also about employees. Back in 2011, a collaboration of dozens of local organizations, businesses, and leaders came together to create the Building Bridges initiative with the vision of “A socially just and ecologically sound, sustainable local economy in the Tompkins County Region.” The initiative works to bring people and organizations together who, when brought together, can help each other solve several key problems that keep low-income individuals from finding meaningful employment: housing, transportation, and workforce development. Kirby Edmonds is a senior fellow and program coordinator of the Dorothy Cotton Institute here in Tompkins County, which is a project of the Center For Transformative Action. Building Bridges came out of DCI. A lot of the work Edmonds does to enhance the work of Building Bridges is to make connections. He hears about a conversation about housing and he works to bring in underrepresented voices that could add to the conversation that may not have otherwise been included.

“On some level, we sort of collectively know what’s needed and have not been able to address what’s needed in a systemic way that is reliable,” Edmonds said when it comes to the issues that Building Bridges is working on.

Out of Building Bridges came the idea of collective impact as an organizing strategy to create movement on these social issues, Edmonds said. Out of collective impact came a different initiative, Cradle to Career, which works to give families what they need to “ensure that our children and youth, pre-birth to age 24 are successful at every stage of development. This means that they are physically and emotionally healthy, active community members and on-track for living wage employment.” Edmonds also coordinates this initiative. At the heart of dozens of cross-sections of human rights, employment, diversity, housing, the local economy, and so much more, you will find Edmonds.

The problem that Cradle to Career in Tompkins county faces is the sheer number of people who fit into the target demographic.

“It’s huge, it’s 80 percent of the county,” Edmonds said. “There’s 45,000 bodies that fit in that category and then there’s their families.”

One of the issues with facing these problems as a community is that many of the established institutions were not organized to think together, work together, or plan together, Edmonds said. Getting stuff done depends on individuals within these establishments, their time, and their mission.

“We do try to be the connective tissue that helps people find each other and collaborate with each other,” Edmonds said. “One of the things that is in our framework is that the principles that people will need to adhere to include putting equity and sustainability at the center of what we do, respect for human rights, building and maintaining stronger relationships across race, class, and place, and the other identities that divide us, and including people who are marginalized in the center of conversations about how to get all of this stuff done.”

Creating the infrastructure for this mission is where the local economic community is weak, Edmonds said. But there is progress. Over the years Edmonds has seen success with collaboration and organization through Cradle to Career, he knows it can happen. He also knows his job will likely never be over.

Minority and disenfranchised populations creating their own table when they don’t feel they have a seat at the existing table is nothing new, but it’s not the only way to create and encourage diversity. The Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce is not sleeping on this issue. Dominick Recckio is the Chamber’s representative within the Cradle to Career initiative.

“What we do is we participate in the conversation with the perspective and the connections that we’re able to bring to the table,” Recckio said.

Within the Cradle to Career group are several initiatives, including the Child Nutrition Program helping connect families with healthy food, and the Ultimate Reentry Opportunity program that helps the formerly incarcerated re-enter society with the support to find housing, services, and gainful employment. The chamber’s role is to bring the perspective of its membership and helping out where they can. Recckio said this can include bringing people into conversations on these issues who may not have otherwise been present.

In a more active role, the chamber helps members become certified as Women and Minority-owned Businesses to be considered for contracts with the state. The process can be a complicated and classically bureaucratic one. The chamber hosts workshops several times a year with members who have been successfully certified to talk through the process with other businesses interested in the opportunity.

A consistent example of a local business putting in the effort to reach out to underrepresented communities is Alternatives Federal Credit Union, an organization that partners with BLOC in several ways, and for 20 years has been putting on a program called Business Sense supporting local and aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Because of our mission here at Alternatives and our focus on serving the underserved, that often means figuring out how can we serve those folks so that it’s not just the white men who are succeeding in our local business economy?” said Kathleen Clark, Business Development Manager at AFCU.

This often means that programs and workshops that AFCU develops change depending on what the underrepresented community needs. First, AFCU partners with existing organizations that are already working with these communities. Once a relationship is developed, Clark said AFCU works with their partners to alter or evolve what they already offer in order to best serve the clientele.

The support for entrepreneurs is present in the area, Clark said, but there needs to be more focus on making sure that the services available are serving all entrepreneurs.

“Part of that involves maybe doing things differently than have been done in the past,” Clark said.

Doing things differently is hardly a new concept in Tompkins County, and this time it is to the advantage of everyone. In different ways, through different strategies, all of the business leaders are working to encourage and support entrepreneurs that reflect the Tompkins County community. Tompkins County has the resources and the networks to help the local economy grow through the inclusion of a wide range of perspectives.