PROVIDENCE – Business leaders on Wednesday announced the launch of the Rhode Island Business Empowerment Network, a coalition of nearly 80 professionals dedicated to uplifting minority- and women-owned businesses in Rhode Island.
The network will work closely together to increase resources and shared knowledge in the state’s minority-owned business community, members said at a press event held at Kin Southern Table + Bar in Providence.
“Let’s think about the benefits that will arise in our community when BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] businesses thrive,” both for Rhode Island as a whole and for communities of color, said Lisa A. Ranglin, founder and executive director of the Rhode Island Black Business Association. “When Black and brown businesses are thriving and create jobs, they hire directly in those communities.”
Referencing Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s proposal to allocate $10 million of the state’s fiscal 2023 budget to minority-owned businesses, Ranglin called on the state legislature to dedicate $100 million toward this purpose, adding that these businesses have been overlooked for too long.
Other member organizations in attendance included the Center for Southeast Asians, Center for Women & Enterprise, the Hope & Main food business incubator and the Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The event also included remarks from Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea.
“We cannot all do everything,” Matos said, adding that the community must come together “to help the minority businesses, the entrepreneurs who are taking a chance in Rhode Island.”
Also calling for broad support, Oscar Mejias, founder and CEO of the Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said that the network’s success will depend on “leaders at every level.”
“We need your help, and we need to, all together, make it happen,” he added.
The Rhode Island Business Empowerment Network is funded through the U.S. Small Business Administration and the R.I. Commerce Corp. in partnership with the One Neighborhood Builders Business Support Center Initiative.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
