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PARTNER WITH US
The Collaborative Community Initiative (CCI) has grown out of the work of The Collaborative. The Collaborative is a group of minority businesses and allies who came together to advance public policies that promoted economic equity and inclusion in the City of New Orleans. Their direct efforts have resulted in the following success stories:
began meeting in 2012 to address the fact that minority-owned businesses were being virtually shut out of the billions of recovery dollars that were being spent in the city of New Orleans.
For instance, more than $2 billion was spent on rebuilding public schools in New Orleans. By 2012, only 1% of that had gone to minority owned businesses.
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As a response to this inequity, The Collaborative began rewriting the city's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) ordinance. This new Ordinance would assure that City contracts include a percentage of work (35%) to DBEs and would enforce oversight through the City's Office of Supplier Diversity.
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In addition to the initial DBE Ordinance, The Collaborative worked with Councilman Jared Brossett to get the accountability and reporting aspects of the Ordinance even stronger, so that now every October each city department, board, and commission must report whether or not they've made their annual DBE goals. The Collaborative also supported the Mayor's office in getting the Office of Supplier Diversity enshrined in the City Charter in a city-wide referendum so that future administrations can't simply ignore the new policies. More recently, we pushed for the city to perform a disparity study to determine the true state of economic inequity in New Orleans which was included in the city's 2017 budget and completed in 2018.
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While The Collaborative has done a tremendous amount to impact economic opportunities for minority owned businesses in New Orleans, there are minority businesses across the state that are struggling. We have been approached by groups from Shreveport and the Northshore who have already asked for guidance in helping them create policies that can benefit their minority communities.
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We want to help create economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities across Louisiana. We know it is challenging, but we also know it is possible because we've done it.
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