Generations is set to be Indiana’s first minority depository institution—and one of only 153 operating in the United States and its territories. But the bank will be open to anyone.
Read MoreIn the early months of the pandemic, Black-owned small businesses closed at twice the rate of other businesses. But in 2021, Black-owned small businesses were created at the fastest clip in at least 26 years.
Read MoreBased in Anderson, Bankable offers microloans to small and startup businesses around the state. This is the organization’s first fund specifically targeting Black-owned businesses.
The Center for Leadership Development’s campaign aims to raise funding for a series of new satellite locations and a 20,000-square-foot building expansion to support a planned 63% increase in program capacity.
Newfields Board Chair Darrianne Christian, the first Black woman to serve in the role, talks about the museum’s efforts to become more diverse and inclusive.
Tamara Cypress—of Black Onyx Management, Indy Black Businesses Matter and Indy Accomplice—discussed with IBJ the progress that’s been made on equity and inclusion problems and the challenges that still exist.
The most important example of CICF’s innovative approach to community philanthropy is its journey toward equitable opportunity for all and dismantling systemic racism.
Although redlining—discrimination in banking and lending based on someone’s race or where they live—has been illegal since the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, analysts at Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute found that inequities in home-loan lending still exist.
The program will allow a small number of entrepreneurs, particularly minorities, to pitch their products directly to Lowe’s, sidestepping a traditionally arduous process of getting their goods sold in 2,200 stores.
The resolution, co-sponsored by all 25 council members, calls for creating a steering committee tasked with developing a strategy to end racial disparities, with its first task identifying where disparities exist in city policies.
Funding for the program will help smaller businesses pay initial expenditures associated with bidding on contracts—supplies and payroll, for example—without having to put themselves at financial risk through high-interest borrowing.
The city of Indianapolis released a study Thursday that looks at disparities minority-owned businesses face as part of the city’s business-contracting processes.
In the week before announcing his retirement as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Indianapolis Colts, broadcaster Bob Lamey used a racial slur while telling a story in the presence of a black radio station employee, according to a media report.
Ahead of an inaugural tech-diversity conference next week, Angela Smith Jones, Indianapolis’ deputy mayor of economic development, spoke with IBJ about tech jobs and inclusion.
Many events are part of the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration’s Business Conference.
Dewand Neely recently spoke with IBJ about cybersecurity, the innovation his office is driving, and being one of only a few African-American state government CIOs in the country.
The National Science Foundation awarded the grant to IUPUI, which will work with Indiana University, Ball State University and other institutions.
The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation has received a grant from the Lilly Endowment to help it digitize more than 1 million pages of city archives and create a center to study African-American writing and culture.
Unemployment for black people in Indiana stood at 7.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016 versus 4.4 percent for white people.
The awards from the White House’s TechHire initiative are earmarked to help workers with limited English skills and disadvantaged young people prepare for technology and manufacturing jobs.
The study factored in K-12 education, health care and incarceration costs. But advocates say undocumented immigrants also add to the economy by paying taxes and purchasing goods.
A few not-for-profits and at least one university have rolled out coding programs they hope will alter some of the somber statistics on the lack of diverse populations in technology careers.
