Lancaster’s “Reimagining Our Community” initiative celebrated the one-year anniversary of its giving circle on Thursday, awarding grants totaling $30,000 to four nonprofits that support BIPOC entrepreneurs.
The grants were the first to be made through the giving circle and were as follows:
- Assets ($10,000): Support for a language access audit by Communication Essentials, with the aim of improving service to entrepreneurs for whom English is a second language
- Crispus Attucks Community Center ($10,000): Support for Crispus Attucks’ Young Professionals of Color Network, which organizes events and networking opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs. The program provides a forum and support for individuals who may not have felt fully accepted in other settings, Crispu Attucks Director Joshua Hunter said.
- Let’s Go 1-2-3 ($7,000): This organization, founded by sisters Keisha and Tarsha Scovens, promotes outdoor recreation opportunities for urban children in Lancaster and Philadelphia. Through the grant, Let’s Go will work with Diana Jules-Peene, author of the children’s book “The Little Brown Seed,” bringing the book and others like it to a wider audience.
- Lancaster City Alliance ($3,000): Support for the alliance’s “Coming Soon” signage and grand-opening ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new small businesses. Over the past year, the alliance has posted 21 “Coming Soon” signs and conducted 17 ribbon-cuttings, of which 43% and 53%, respectively, were for BIPOC-owned enterprises, alliance President Marshall Snively said.
The ROC is overseen by Chelsea Christmas. She is the community engagement coordinator at Assets, a position whose creation stemmed from the ROC’s strategic plan.
She emceed Thursday’s event with Alex Otthofer, the ROC’s communications lead, who is community engagement manager at Lancaster City Alliance.
The ROC’s mission is to build a stronger, more equitable local economy by ensuring local business owners have access to “the resources they need to grow and thrive,” Christmas said.
The organization grew out of “Reinventing Our Communities,” a program launched by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to promote equity and expand economic opportunity in underserved communities.
Lancaster’s cohort, convened in 2021, decided to rename itself and continue on its own after the Fed’s involvement ended. Its strategic plan formalized three objectives: Build community and networking among BIPOC entrepreneurs; strengthen trust between them and the organizations that offer support and resources; and expand access to capital.
That third element is the most important, said Denzel Brown, senior loan officer at Assets.
“That is the biggest barrier,” he said. “… It takes money to make money.”
Brown oversees Assets’ ROC Loan program, offered in partnership with the ROC, which provides borrowers up to $10,000 at 1% interest. The term is three years and there’s a 30% grant match. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the country, Brown said.
The loan program was launched last year, as was the giving circle, both with support from the Lancaster Conty Community Foundation. The giving circle is a “collective philanthropy” initiative, gathering contributions into a pool from which it makes grants to organizations for programs supporting BIPOC entrepreneurships.
The ROC plans to launch its second round of giving circle grants next spring, Otthofer said.
At Thursday’s event, Christmas and Otthofer recognized Assets and the community foundation for their support of the ROC, as well as three small business leaders: Amer Al Fayadh of Communication Essentials; Ole Hongvanthong of PhotOle; and Alissa Calhoun of A. Calhoun Events.
