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Heads Up
Reaching Out
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has launched a black business initiative to attract more African-American businesses to its ranks.
"We looked around and saw that the chamber membership wasn't representative of the community," says Jeffrey Bridges, senior vice president of operations and strategic initiatives, who is heading up the effort. "We wanted to be more inclusive and more representative of the business community."
The program is focusing on reaching out to black businesses to provide mentoring and to foster partnerships with chamber members. The chamber hopes to counsel African-American businesses on the ins and outs of obtaining government and military contracts and to pave ties with the fledgling black entertainment sector in the area.
Bridges says many local black business operators "just didn't feel connected to the chamber or that there was enough access for them or their businesses."
"The overall mission is to provide access to black businesses and build relationships to the rest of the business community in south Florida," says Bridges.
