Youth UpRising, of Oakland, California, was created in 2003 in response to heightened racial tensions driven by decades of poverty and strife. They opened in 2005 with programming focused on direct service, community relations, and a unique public/private partnership between themselves, government, foundations, and other local service agencies. We sat down with their CFO, John Payne, to hear more about Youth UpRising and how ICCC helped them to scale the impact of their program. Read More

There’s one thing Jim and Kathy Turner always say about their seafood, “if it were any fresher, it would still be swimming,” and as a fourth generation family business, Turner’s Seafood is now looking for ways to keep their business strategies as fresh as their fish. In October, the Turner’s traveled from Massachusetts to attend the Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) culminating conference in New York. Read More

As part of our partnership with JPMorgan Chase's Small Business Forward program, ICIC has been working closely with a group of entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) focused on the high-tech sector to better understand their impact on early-stage businesses. As the field of entrepreneurial support continues to mature, our evaluation provides a critical opportunity to better understand what effective support for high-tech, early-stage businesses looks like. Our findings also start to fill a critical data gap for ESOs. Read More

While at Inner City Capital Connections' culminating conference, we interviewed VetCor, a veteran owned and operated Florida-based company providing 24/7 emergency services for property restoration of water and mold damage. While they await their ICCC program start in early 2018, they continue to understand ways to grow their small business while maintaining their mission to provide veterans with fulfilling work after their military services. Read More

Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) provides a wealth of opportunities and educational resources to inner city businesses that help them expand sustainably while creating more jobs and opportunity in their neighborhoods. These companies all have something in common besides participating in this unique program: they are operated by a diverse group of dedicated entrepreneurs, who work tirelessly to see their businesses succeed. At 2017 ICCC culminating conference, hundreds of these entrepreneurs ventured to New York to share their challenges and triumphs in the interest of learning from each other. Read More