Northwestern University, University of Chicago, & JPMorgan Chase join forces to help grow South Side & West Side businesses &...
June 26 2017 - 12:10PM
Business Wire
Three-year partnership will fund new programs to support
minority-owned businesses
Two premier Chicago institutions, Northwestern University and
the University of Chicago, announced a three-year partnership to
support the growth of minority-owned businesses that provide
employment opportunities in some of Chicago’s neighborhoods with
the highest unemployment rates. Each university will receive
$200,000 from JPMorgan Chase to launch new programs to support
those living in underserved neighborhoods.
Collaboration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of
Management and the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with support from the University
of Chicago Booth School of Business, brings together two formidable
business management schools and entrepreneur training curricula
focused on building and implementing an ecosystem that will support
the growth of both neighborhood-based and high-growth-oriented
businesses in South Side and West Side neighborhoods. Each
university will work with groups of minority-owned small businesses
on new programs to help them grow their businesses and create local
job opportunities.
Kellogg School of Management will offer a four-day residential
management educational program to target minority-owned and other
businesses that have significant percentages of employees from
Chicago's under-resourced neighborhoods. The sessions focus on
growing the businesses by increasing employment and job
quality. Sessions include business planning, capital markets,
growth through acquisition and presenting to funders. The
participants also will be assigned to two MBA students as
resources, who also in turn learn more about business issues
in underserved communities. The MBA students will be available
to the owners several weeks after the program ends. This
year’s program will run July 23-27, 2017.
The Polsky Center at the University of Chicago will launch a new
program that pairs UChicago students with business owners seeking
support and recommendations for new growth strategies. These
11-week consulting engagements will be offered to students as an
extra-curricular program running in both the fall and spring
academic quarters. Students will work in teams to solve real-world
business challenges for their client companies and receive guidance
and training from Chicago Booth adjunct associate professor of
marketing Craig Terrill. In exchange, business owners will receive
full access to the Polsky Exchange, the 34,000 square foot
co-working facility and startup hub on 53rd Street in Hyde Park,
including opportunities to connect with experienced mentors and
participate in more than 450 events and business training workshops
offered each year. Applications for the new Polsky Center program
will be available in early August 2017, at which point both
students and business owners will be encouraged to apply.
“The Polsky Center is excited to launch this new program and
advance our mission of supporting entrepreneurs and businesses in
the local community without a formal tie to the University of
Chicago,” said John Flavin, associate vice president for
entrepreneurship and innovation and head of the Polsky Center. “By
teaming up with Northwestern and JPMorgan Chase, we are able to
combine resources and broaden our reach for an even bigger
impact.”
Both Northwestern and the University of Chicago already have
existing programs that support local and minority-owned businesses,
and this new collaboration will enhance those efforts.
In 2014, the University of Chicago launched an initiative called
UChicago Local to support mid-South Side businesses. The University
also seeks to increase the number of minority- and women-owned
firms it does business with through its annual, two-day
Professional Services Symposium, which has been connecting
businesses with University hiring managers since 2008.
“The University of Chicago is committed to supporting diversity
and local economic growth,” said Derek Douglas, Vice President for
Civic Engagement and External Relations for the University. “We are
excited to partner with Northwestern and with JPMorgan Chase in
this important new effort, and we are especially grateful for
Chase’s support.”
"The grant from JPMorgan Chase allows us to further support
minority-owned businesses in under-resourced communities through
our Executive Education program," said Michele Rogers, Director,
Chicago Partnerships, and Clinical Assistant Professor at Kellogg
School of Management at Northwestern University. "We are thrilled
to collaborate with JPMorgan Chase and University of Chicago's
Polsky Center to affect change in our South and West Side
neighborhoods."
Research shows minority-owned businesses rely significantly more
on investments of personal or family wealth than on outside debt or
equity. Only 16 percent of conventional small business loans went
to women entrepreneurs and less than two percent of
African-American owned businesses received SBA loans in 2013,
according to a recent report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship. In Chicago, small businesses have
the unique potential to contribute to increased economic activity
and employment in underserved neighborhoods. A recent study from
the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City showed that 70% of jobs
in Chicago’s inner city came from small businesses, compared to 58%
of the city overall.
“Small businesses in underserved neighborhoods provide most of
the jobs in those communities, yet they lack the tools and
resources that make high-growth companies successful,” said Melissa
Bean, Chairman of the Midwest, JPMorgan Chase. “Funding the
collaboration between Northwestern University and the University of
Chicago, two of the nation’s premier universities, to expand their
programs that help minority-owned businesses grow and succeed helps
increase economic activity and employment in our communities.”
The Chicago collaboration is part of the national Ascend 2020
program that was developed by the University of Washington Foster
School of Business. In addition to Chicago, Ascend 2020 will launch
in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oakland/San Francisco, Seattle, and
Washington, D.C. in 2017. The program is part of JPMorgan Chase’s
three-year $75 million commitment to growing minority-owned,
women-owned, veteran-owned and inner city businesses.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170626005927/en/
Media:JPMorgan ChaseChristine Holevas, 312-732-6206orUniversity
of ChicagoCalmetta Coleman, 773-702-4254orNorthwestern
UniversityMolly Lynch, 773-505-9719
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