The second City Accelerator cohort on Inclusive Procurement invited ten cities–Boston, Cleveland, El Paso, Houston, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and South Bend–to leverage their spending power and procurement systems to create greater and more equitable economic opportunity for Black and Brown-owned businesses.
Throughout a year that included a global pandemic and racial justice uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd, the ten cities came together to share lessons as a community and work to implement strategies for inclusive procurement. They received guidance from cohort lead Griffin & Strong P.C. and cohort members from the first City Accelerator Inclusive Procurement cohort, whose strategies and successes are captured in Culture, Collaboration and Capital: Leveraging Procurement for Economic Equity.
This companion guide highlights stories of how the ten cities implemented strategies to ensure businesses owned by people of color were awarded more city contracts. Just as the cities in the second inclusive procurement cohort adopted strategies from the first cohort, we invite you to use this companion guide to inform how your city can leverage procurement funds to support businesses owned by people of color.
To learn more about the cohort, you can watch the final webinar in our Next City series Procurement & the Pandemic to hear stories of success and takeaways from the cohort cities of Nashville and Philadelphia, and cohort lead Atty. Rodney Strong.
