Last Friday at the Inc. 500 Conference in Chicago, former President Bill Clinton announced a joint initiative between the William J. Clinton Foundation and Inc. to expand an inner-city mentorship program to entrepreneurs across the nation.
Named The Inner City Entrepreneur Initiative, the mentorship program brings together inner-city business owners with successful entrepreneurs for the purpose of sponsoring professional growth, building professional networks, and sharing lessons learned in the trenches. Each mentor and entrepreneur team will work together over the course of a year on developing business and growth strategies relevant to the entrepreneur's operations.
This program originally kicked off in 2006 as a pilot program with entrepreneurs in Harlem and the Bronx, and because of its successes The Clinton Foundation and Inc. will be launching the program in other major U.S. cities including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
Clinton believes that with the right type of mentoring, entrepreneurs working together can "help transform their local economies" and see this type of B-2-B giving (and giving in general) as being a key microtrend that can have significant and positive impact on major societal and business challenges.
Shivonne Byrne, Innuity CMO
Comments