Urban League of Greater Oklahioma City, Inc.

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City?s HERE (Helping Entrepreneurs Reach Excellence) program is a Community Navigator Pilot program that is designed to provide culturally competent business technical assistance, entrepreneur case management, training, coaching, and mentoring to underrepresented individuals and businesses in the Oklahoma City MSA. Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City?s (ULOKC) HERE serves as the hub and coordinates activity with spoke partners- The Asian District Cultural Association, the Oklahoma City Black Chamber of Commerce, Langston University, the Midwest City Chamber of Commerce, and Scissortail Community Development Corporation. The collaboration provides recovery services to existing underrepresented businesses, expands financial and procurement opportunities, and works with underrepresented individuals seeking opportunities to become entrepreneurs. With funding from Oklahoma?s distribution of ARPA, we will seek to build statewide partnerships with economic development organizations like the Tulsa Economic Development Corporation (TEDC). The City of Tulsa in partnership with TEDC recently pledged $4 million to support the Greenwood Entrepreneurship Incubator @ Moton (GEIM) in north Tulsa. The City of Oklahoma City has recently pledged $4 million to support minority businesses. The ULOKC will coordinate and work with organizations statewide to replicate the hub and spoke model to expand technical services to under-resourced entrepreneurs.

EVIDENCE

The HERE Program will use the National Urban League?s Entrepreneurship Center Program (ECP) model to guide implementation efforts. Since 2004, the National Urban League has administered ECP, providing management counseling, mentoring, and training services for small and minority entrepreneurs looking to start, grow or scale their business, through a network of 12 Urban League affiliates across the country. The ECP?s proven hub and spoke business model combines direct entrepreneurial skills development assistance from business mentors and coaches, with targeted resource referrals. In 2021, ECP serviced 11,000 clients and saved 1,000 jobs, and helped clients secure over $120 million in contracts.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

According to a recent Ernst and Young study, distribution of business ownership in Oklahoma City is not proportional to the city?s racial population distribution. Black residents make up 13% of the city?s population but own only 2% of businesses. Latinx owners are also under-represented in businesses ownership, with 21% of the population and 5% of business ownership. Only Native American businesses are roughly proportional ? with 3% of the population and 3% of business ownership, the 2nd highest share among benchmarks. White Tulsans are 17 times more likely than Black Tulsans to be business executives, and the median household income for white residents is almost double that of Black residents, according to data compiled by the city and a local nonprofit. Prior to the life-altering appearance of the coronavirus, most small businesses reported being in ?good shape,? with 73% reporting good or stable financial health. However, twenty-seven percent of small white-owned businesses reported being ?at risk? or ?in distress,? compared to 49% of small Hispanic-owned businesses and 57% of small Black-owned businesses reporting the same. Minority businesses disproportionately suffered from the lack of financial and technical support necessary to shift delivery of goods and services.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The HERE Program will document and track activities and impacts to ensure that its programs and services are efficiently achieving their intended outcomes. The logic model for this initiative is: Increase density of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, increased access to entrepreneurial assistance, increased survivability, and vitality for small and minority businesses, and increased economic vitality for Oklahoma. To measure progress on these elements of the logic model, the HERE Program will collect administrative data on entrepreneurs who receive technical support from navigators, employment numbers for clients, and how outcomes for local businesses compare to federal data survival rates.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma