1. DIVERSITY BRIDGE YOUR BUSINESS RESOURCE
SOMERS L. MARTIN, MS, DIRECTOR
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

2. DIVERSITY BRIDGE YOUR BUSINESS RESOURCE SOMERS L
DIVERSITY BRIDGE YOUR BUSINESS RESOURCE SOMERS L. MARTIN, DIRECTOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES COLUMBUS CHAMBER

3. Chamber’s Mission To help businesses thrive Provide business services
Comprehensive local business intelligence
Business connections
Resources
Benefits
Advocacy
Solutions
We help connect businesses to their next customer; assist you in locating the right resources; advocate on your behalf and provide you the comprehensive intel and solutions to your business questions. If we don’t know it, we have an integrated network throughout the region where we can find you the right answer.

4. What is Diversity Bridge?
Economic development initiative
Catalyst for economic opportunity and prosperity
Goal: creation of jobs & wealth in the minority community
Diversity Bridge is an economic development initiative of the Columbus Chamber that is designed to assist in the creation of jobs and wealth in the minority community. Over the past decade, racial and ethnic minorities account for half of the total population growth in Columbus. To achieve its goal of continued economic growth and prosperity, Columbus must develop and implement a strategy that captures the talent and skills of this increasing diverse population.

5. Need for Enhanced M/WBE Initiative?
Changing demographics – capture talent & skills of diverse population
Better serve stakeholders
Business ownership – primary means to wealth creation
Strengthen economic well being of community
Business ownership is one of the primary means to wealth accumulation in American. According to the Small Business Administration, minority-owned businesses employ a higher percentage of minority employees. It is hypothesized that as minority businesses grow, this growth will result in additional jobs and career options within the minority community which will strengthen the overall economic well being of our region.

6. Business owners must connect with multiple organizations in order to be successful. From the completion of multiple minority business certifications to determine what resources are available to assist their growth to discovering what activities, meetings, and engagements, business owners must decide on a daily basis how to best maximize this information in order to increase their own efficiency and effectiveness.

7. Where We Have Been Solicited feedback from 150 stakeholders
Identified needs of minority business owners and private & public sector buyers
Created a Comprehensive Minority Business Plan
A group of invested stakeholders met to identify needs of the minority business community and created a two-year comprehensive business strategic plan that focused on job creation, wealth building in the Columbus minority community, and fostering a positive economic impact.

8. Identified Needs Access to capital Relief from multiple certifications
Access to decision makers
Resource that facilitates identification of M/WBEs
Access to information regarding available resources
Needs identified include: access to capital, relief from multiple certifications, access to decision makers, identification of resources, and access to information.

9. Six Solutions
Portal
Web
Capital
Access to
Certification
One Stop
Decision Makers
Relationships
Building
Strategies
Growth
Six solution teams were established that focused on various parts of the strategic plan to address each need identified by the stakeholder groups.

10. www.DiversityBridge.com launched May 1, 2008
Enhanced site launched
April 4, 2011

12. Web Portal Creates a virtual one-stop www.diversitybridge.com
Engages buyers, service providers, certifying agencies, and M/WBEs
Provides access to resources & opportunities
The Diversity Bridge web portal is a virtual one-stop that facilitates minority business growth and development.

13. DiversityBridge.com Registered Users
Total registered users – 838
W/MBEs – 732
Buyers – 56
Certifying Agencies – 6
Service Providers - 44
To date, there are a total of 838 registered users broken down by the categories shown here.

14. One-Stop Certification
Creation of common M/WBE certification application
Reduces burden of completing multiple applications
Sends application electronically to certifying agencies who retain the approval authority
Relief from multiple certifications was a major concern to business owners. As a result, the certifying agencies partnered and created a common certification application that encompasses the majority of the items required on their certification forms. A user can register on Diversity Bridge and complete information for up to 4 certifying agencies that is then sent electronically to the certifying agency in their format, the user and Diversity Bridge. Certifying agencies retain their approval authority in this process; the Diversity Bridge application is a conduit to help ease the burden.,

15. Facilitate coordination/collaboration
Business Resource Provider Network (non-profit organizations that serve W/MBEs)
Facilitate coordination/collaboration
Provide information regarding available business assistance resources
Service providers are listed with links to their websites on Diversity Bridge to help increase access to those organizations by Diversity Bridge users and to help facilitate the coordination and collaboration by, between and among these organizations.

16. Where We Are Headed… DiversityBridge.com
Ongoing recruitment of M/WBEs, agencies and corporations
Establish Diversity Bridge Advisory Committee
Provide input/feedback on next steps
We strive to increase the number of users that are registered on Diversity Bridge and that those users increase their engagement to each other as well as the resources that are available to them on the web portal. We will continue to meet with stakeholders to discuss Diversity Bridge and how to improve the work and provide additional outreach in order to grow the initiative. We are currently working with other organizations who wish to develop similar initiatives.

17. Where We Are Headed… DiversityBridge.com
Providing more jobs and building wealth in the minority community by…
Creating a more efficient and effective service delivery network
Building capacity within the minority business community
An increase in perception that the Greater Columbus community is a place to do business because of its inclusiveness
It is our belief that by increasing jobs and building wealth, we will create a stronger service delivery network and increase the capacity that exists within the minority business community. At the end of the day, we belief we can increase the perception that this is the place to do business because we are so inclusive.