The Bank of America Global Ambassadors event in held in September in Chicago supported the advancement of women’s leadership and economic empowerment. It featured a diverse group of leading women executives and other powerful voices in entrepreneurship and business, including Stephanie Hickman, President and CEO of Chicago-based Trice Construction Company and an alumna of the Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) program. Read More

In 2016, civil unrest in Milwaukee left a stretch of the Sherman Park neighborhood extensively damaged and economically harmed. Businesses in the area, including BMO Harris Bank, were set on fire, causing over $5.8 million in property damage. Now, the city is making an investment in the same neighborhood to turn it into a place of burgeoning economic opportunity. Read More

Yolanda Jones gets to the office at Yolanda’s Construction Administration & Traffic Control (YCAT-C), which she founded in 2010, every day at 6 a.m. There’s a lot happening. YCAT-C has $6 million in contracts earned or lined up for this year, its biggest year so far. She’s got something in the pipeline that could add another $10 million in annual revenues and perhaps 20 more employees in the next year. And, oh, NBA star LeBron James gave Jones a shout-out recently on Facebook and Twitter. She won a small business contest he held last fall. Read More

Learn how MeritHall, a 2016 Inner City 100 winner and business with more than $5 million in annual revenue, got an unlikely start in Detroit. Read More

In Boston and elsewhere, construction activity has experienced an uptick recently. Read More