MORE IN THE MIDDLE
Project: MORE IN THE MIDDLE
Sponsor: Associated Black Charities through the Annie E. Casey Foundation
IPS Staff: Marsha R. B. Schachtel
Purpose and Approach
The More in the Middle initiative is designed to retain existing African-American middle-class resi-dents, grow African-American middle-class residents from within the existing pool of Baltimore’s low-income residents, and attract new African-American middle class residents from outside the region into the city by building assets, such as equity in homes, equity in businesses they own, or human capital assets in the form of higher educational attainment. One of the core equity-building strategies being explored by the More in the Middle Leadership Collaborative, which oversees the initiative, is business development, of which a key component is birth and growth of African-American owned small businesses. This project first explored the status of, and barriers to, the birth and growth of African-American businesses in Baltimore, then inventoried resources available to support their birth and growth and identified representatives of these resources, and explored the role that social networks play in African-American business success.
The first phase of the work provided new insights about the paths entrepreneurs have taken, the ob-stacles they have encountered, the support that was most meaningful, and the work yet to be done to help these firms and their owners build equity. A roundtable of bankers, financing and management assistance staff, and business representatives was convened to explore the realities of and gaps in Afri-can-American business support.
This year, the focus has been on creating a high-level work group of medium-to-large African-American business owners and executives in major companies and institutions in the region to develop consensus metrics for assessing the progress and success of our community’s African-American busi-ness development programs. The group will rely on products of the previous phases for reference.
Results
The results of the first phases were presented at the More in the Middle colloquium and to the More in the Middle Leadership Collaborative. A comprehensive inventory of resources available to support the birth and growth of African-American businesses was prepared. The exploration of social networks produced a summary of relevant research findings, a survey of approaches used elsewhere, current in-itiatives in Baltimore, and recommended actions. A summary of the report was presented at the public launch of the More in the Middle initiative in January 2008.
Publications
Schachtel, M.R.B. (2007). “More in the Middle Initiative: Activating Social Networks that will Sup-port the Start-Up and Growth of African-American Businesses.” Report to Associated Black Charities.
