(July 21, 2010) The number of minority-owned businesses increased by 45.6 percent to 5.8 million between 2002 and 2007, more than twice the national rate of all U.S. businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, the number of black-owned business increased by 60.5 percent  during the same period. The total number of U.S. businesses increased between 2002 and 2007 by 18.0 percent to 27.1 million.

These new data come from the Preliminary Estimates of Business Ownership by Gender, Ethnicity, Race and Veteran Status: 2007, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 Survey of Business Owners. The preliminary report released today is the first of 10 reports on the characteristics of minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses and their owners scheduled for release over the next year.

Increases in the number of minority-owned businesses ranged from 60.5 percent for black-owned businesses to 17.9 percent for American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses. Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43.6 percent.

FULL ARTICLE > http://www.targetmarketnews.com/storyid07221002.htm

National Sales Network Conference

Originally uploaded by Blacksonville Community Network

If anyone is interested, tell them to send a resume and email cover letter to Josh Robinson jrobinson@emeraldwaste.com.

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The Emergency Fund, included in last year’s Recovery Act, has enabled states to create subsidized jobs for large numbers of low-income individuals who otherwise would be unemployed; more than 30 states are using the fund to create and preserve about 160,000 jobs (see map, below). The fund has also helped small businesses by defraying one of their key costs — employee wages —thereby enabling many firms to add staff they otherwise could not afford. In addition, the fund has strengthened overall consumer demand by enabling states to respond to the growing need among very poor parents and children for basic cash assistance and short-term, non-recurring needs.[2]

The fund is set to set to expire, however, on September 30, at a time when unemployment will still be very high and increasing numbers of individuals will have exhausted their unemployment benefits. States are already planning to start dismantling their subsidized jobs programs in anticipation of this withdrawal of federal financial help. If Congress fails to extend the fund, many of the 160,000 jobs it has helped create will be lost, and the additional subsidized jobs that small firms would create if additional funding were available will fail to materialize.

The fund’s expiration would also pose problems for small businesses. If firms participating in the program have not recovered enough to afford the wage costs, they will have to reduce staffing, and the individuals they hired with the help of the subsidy will again be unemployed. This would be a setback both for the economic recovery and for small firms participating in the program.

How the Subsidized Jobs Programs Work

Under the TANF Emergency Fund, each state — and in some states, each county or region — can design its own model of how subsidized job placements work, and states are using a range of models. This has enabled states and local areas to design their subsidized job programs in ways that best fit the needs of local businesses and communities.

Many states subsidize all, or nearly all, of the cost of the wages, while other states use a more modest, partial subsidy or one that declines over a period of months. Most commonly, states subsidize job placements that last six months; a few are shorter, and some are longer. States also have flexibility to determine who can qualify for a subsidized job. States need not limit participation to families receiving cash assistance, and a number of states are targeting a broader group of low-income unemployed parents, including those who are receiving — or exhausting — unemployment benefits. In all cases, the individual employer decides whom to hire, ensuring that firms are able to hire people who are a good fit for them.

How the TANF Emergency Fund Helps Small Businesses

Subsidizing all or much of an employee’s wage costs for a period of time is of particular help to small businesses that are not certain when they will be able to fully support the costs of hiring new workers. Although some TANF subsidized jobs programs require employers to hire the individual at the end of the subsidy period, others do not or simply encourage employers to do so. Either arrangement may actually be more beneficial to some small employers than the measures included in the jobs bill President Obama signed on March 18, which provides a temporary Social Security payroll tax suspension (equal to 6.2 percent of wages) through the end of the year and a $1,000 tax credit if the firm retains the new employee for a year.

The President observed when signing the legislation, “There is a lot more we need to do to spur hiring in the private sector and bring about a full economic recovery.” Extending the TANF Emergency Fund is one such step that can be especially beneficial to small businesses. The fund has helped small firms in three ways:

• Promoting business expansion. The recession has required many small firms to put expansion plans on hold. By reducing a portion of the costs (and therefore the risk) associated with expanding, the fund has allowed some small businesses to proceed with planned expansions. For example, Tennessee’s subsidized employment program enabled a pastry business to increase production, which in turn allowed the firm to expand its distribution area and purchase a packaging machine to increase its efficiency. This expansion proved successful; the firm found new customers — and the firm now plans to hire all of the workers it hired through the TANF subsidized jobs program as regular employees.
• Rehiring laid-off employees. Small businesses hit hard by the recession often lack sufficient reserves to keep valued employees during periods of weak demand for their products or services. The TANF Emergency Fund has allowed some small businesses to rehire laid-off employees sooner than they had planned. For example, a small rental company in rural Ohio was able to hire back an employee who had been laid off for an extended period and would otherwise have remained laid off. This employer is planning to keep the employee on staff after the three-month subsidy ends, in anticipation of a seasonal increase in business after the winter.
• Supporting new business start-ups. Starting a new business can be difficult during a period of weak demand because the risk of failure is much greater. This is unfortunate because new businesses are essential to the long-term economic viability of communities that have faced significant job losses before and during the recession. Some of these communities have been able to use the TANF Emergency Fund to attract new firms and to help businesses that are just starting to increase their chances of success. For example, a small city in Ohio worked with local business organizations to put together a package of incentives to encourage a new employer to move to the city. One of the incentives was TANF wage subsidies for new hires.

AARP Foundation Women’s Scholarship Program

This scholarship program provides scholarship funds to women 40+ seeking new job skills, training, and educational opportunities to support themselves and their families.

The program is available to eligible individuals with moderate to lower incomes and limited financial resources.

To be eligible for the scholarships, applicants must be:

* Women;
* Age 40 or over by March 31, 2010;
* U.S. Citizens; Able to demonstrate financial need;
* Enrolled in an accredited school or technical program in the U.S., within 6 months of the scholarship award date.

The AARP Foundation will award up to 100 scholarships.

Deadline:
March 31, 2010

Award Amount:
$500 – $5,000

Website/Contact Info:
www.aarpfoundationwlc.org/?gclid=
COeKnvOUiZ4CFchn5QodR2xQpg

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More than half of black males between the ages of 16 and 19 are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that’s only counting those seeking work. Economists say legions of other young black men – nobody knows how many – have given up looking. Sitting in an empty classroom at the YouthBuild Charter School in Washington, D.C., Andre Johnson, 18, talks about his fruitless job search.

“I apply for jobs every day,” he says. “And usually I do it online, ’cause I know before when I used to go in the stores, they used to look at me actually different and weird, and they say, ‘Oh we don’t have no applications or nothing,’ and I never believed them.” Academics believe fewer than 14 in 100 young black men actually have jobs. Washington, D.C., has the worst teen employment rate in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A Disturbing Trend

Experts point to several reasons for the disparity. Allison Lee is a job placement specialist at YouthBuild, which helps teens complete their GEDs, gain job training and land internships and employment. She says she has seen discrimination from hiring managers firsthand. “They have told me on the phone or to my face that they are hiring,” she says. “And when I send a student in by himself who’s a young black male, they’re told, ‘No, we’re not hiring.’”

Discrimination alone doesn’t explain the entire problem. There are other reasons, like the fact that few African-Americans work in hiring offices. Studies show that when more blacks are in positions to hire new employees, more blacks get hired. Also, few networks exist in the young men’s communities to help them get jobs. Fewer of their parents, family and friends have jobs, so fewer connections are there to help them find work. It all sets up a disturbing trend.

Algernon Austin of the Economic Policy Institute says the job prospects for white, adult felons are higher than those for black male teenagers without any criminal record. In addition, older workers who have been laid-off from higher paying jobs are now taking the entry-level jobs many black teens apply for. In fact, more people 55 and older are working in this recession than were before.

Lingering Disparities, Long Term Effects

It’s not just low-income households that are hurting. Andrew Sum of with the Center for Labor Market Studies found that upper-middle-class black teenagers are less likely to be employed than low-income white teenagers.

Among black teens in households making between $100,000 and $150,000 a year, only 28 in 100 have jobs. Of white, non-Hispanic teens in households making less than $20,000 a year, 37 out of 100 have jobs. Generally, as family income increases, the rate of teen employment for those households rises. But even this trend can’t erase the lingering disparities in employment for black teenagers. Sum says that young people need to work during their teen years:

“These people who work a lot when they’re teenagers not only benefit when they’re teenagers, but they also will work more and earn more when they’re 25 years old,” he says. “The more you work now, the more you work tomorrow.” And working as a teen leads to higher high school graduation rates, steadier and higher-paying employment down the road, and lower rates of criminal activity.

Refusing To Give Up

Anthony Bishop, 18, is still looking for work. On his lunch break at the Building for the Future Charter School in Southeast D.C., he says young black men need to “dress for the occasion” when they apply for a job. “Some black people … they’ll just go on the job with baggy jeans, just try to apply for the job, but that ain’t the right way to go.” he says.

Back at YouthBuild, 19-year-old Isaiah Brown says the managers who wouldn’t hire him missed out on a good worker. “And you just missed out on a good opportunity for your business,” he says.

Corey Evans, another YouthBuild student, is optimistic in telling other black youths to keep trying. “Don’t let nothing hold you back,” he says. He says the best way to get a job is to not worry about the economy, or your color, even if others do.

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EXECUTIVE NARRATIVE

The primary purpose and application areas of Edward Waters College new Urban Education Institute is to develop a  21^st Middle College integrated education initiative supported by scientific-like knowledge that practitioners can apply at the local level to solve local problems. Outreach from the Urban Education division will be closely monitored and developed over a five year learning plan that reinforces academic excellence throughout the District, civic engagement and service learning, and heavy emphasis on career training and local job placement. The institution is anticipated to start by the year 2012.

The Blacksonville  Community Network (BCN) in partnership with Edward Waters College School of Urban Education will serve as management consultant and IT project manager on behalf of the Community Resource Network (CRNetwork) to assist in the creation of a sustainable, action-driven, urban model that promotes and implements online and offline programs in diverse learning environments.

The Mission of the Middle College component of the School of Urban Education (called the Pre-College Academy) is to empower socio-economically deprived youth through quality, integrated education and web-based training in new media in preparation of college placement and/or high wage employment. The advance career and academic curriculum will garner volunteer and paid support from competent and confident professionals and experienced educators committed to develop excellence in scholarship, research and community service.

BCN will partner with and train community-based organizations (CBOs) to help local disenfranchised residents, particularly African Americans who most suffer from the Digital Divide, to obtain and retain high-value employment using technology and telecommunications.  BCN’s primary goal is to create an economic development initiative in Jacksonville, Florida by galvanizing support and the adoption of broadband technology to create an Internet-based network that identifies community assets and connects community residents to critical information exchange, virtual learning tools, events, and online business mentors for continuing support. It will also provide adult “life skills” and technology-based employment training (including digital media, web publishing, journalism, and basic computer services), internships, and linkage to higher wage jobs.

Read more

EWC School of Urban Education as an institution is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment. In offering education, psychology, and health studies, the College is committed to providing expanding employment opportunities to persons of color, women, and persons with disabilities in its own activities and in society.

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December 3, 2009
by Raynard Jackson

Political analyst

In 2008, Barack Obama made history by becoming the first Black to be elected president of the United States of America.  He ran the closest thing to a perfect campaign I have ever seen. But, this history has turned into a mystery since his swearing in as president back in January 2009.

Winston Churchill (former prime minister of Britain during WW II) once said, “To every man, there comes a time when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a great and mighty work, unique to him and fitted to his talents.  What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be his finest hour.”  We all receive and experience only a few of these moments in a lifetime.  How we respond to these moments will dictate our life’s story.

I think Obama’s candidacy for president last year was one of these moments and he responded marvelously.   When he received his “tap on the shoulder,” conventional wisdom told him that he was crazy!  America was not ready to elect a Black man!  Members of the Black political elite said, “it wasn’t his time!”  I, to, was one of these people.

But, fortunately, he answered his “tap on the shoulder” and went on to prove to America that he was uniquely equipped with the talents needed to win his race.

After 8 years of Bush, America was mentally and fiscally drained by the seeming arrogance of power displayed by the Bush administration.  Congressional Republicans were impotent before the Bush White House and basically did whatever they were told to do.

America had been so mentally beat up—9/11, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, partisan bickering in Congress, and the financial collapse—that they were looking for a fresh face to inspire hope in this country.  So, Obama came along with a message of “hope, change we can believe in, and yes we can.”  He had accepted his “tap on the shoulder.”

His election last November was universally received as a very historic, positive, and good thing (politics not withstanding).  He took office in January with so much goodwill that he could have done pretty much anything.  This is where the mystery of his presidency begins.

Regardless of what happens with his healthcare proposal (and I think he will get it passed in some form this year), this will prove to be his Achilles heel.  The biggest mistake Obama made has nothing to do with the substance of his proposal.  The president’s biggest mistake was to allow Congress to write the bill versus submitting his own bill to Congress.

There is nothing in the president’s past to indicate that he tolerates confrontation very well.  This aversion to confrontation and his need to be a conciliator will marginalize his presidency if there is not a drastic change in his governing style.

No one in Congress fears opposing the president.  The president needs to learn how to be more like LBJ and to crack a few heads.  Democrats in Congress are much further to the left than the president.  But, they seem to be crafting the agenda and the White House is just following along.  Well, that’s not what the American people voted for.  They did not vote for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.  They voted for a president that would get things done, be bi-partisan where possible, and get our fiscal house in order.

Obama’s election made history.  But what happened to him after the election is a mystery.  Where is the candidate who had no turnover in his campaign staff (this is unheard of for a national campaign)?  Where is the candidate whose campaign finances were never questioned     (again, unheard of)?   Where is the candidate who was able to inspire all Americans that a brighter day was coming?

I am acutely aware that there is a big difference between campaigning and governing.  But, this is the same person that masterfully answered his “tap on the shoulder.”  “What a tragedy if this moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be his finest hour.”

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-based political consulting/government affairs firm.   You can listen to his radio show every Saturday evening from 7-9:00 p.m.  Go to www.ustalknetwork.com to register and then click on host, and then click on his photo to join his group.

Don’t forget to register to listen to my radio show every Saturday evening from 7-9:00 p.m.  Go to www.ustalknetwork.com to register and then click on host, and then click on my photo to join my group.

Raynard Jackson has been named to Talkers Magazine’s “Frontier Fifty.” The “Frontier Fifty” is a selection of Outstanding Talk Media Web casters.