Louisville Urban League celebrates launch of new center for entrepreneurship
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Local leaders are celebrating the launch of the Louisville Urban League Center for Entrepreneurship.The idea for it is to help local Black business owners to thrive. On Monday, a path forward for Louisville, which started as an idea, became a reality to create generational Black wealth for Black business owners. It is about creating opportunities where few or none existed before.”Opportunity, opportunities to sow seeds through t-shirts and leave a message and an impact to tell a story,” said CEO of Sow Journey Darla Thompson.”We recognize partners like Republic Bank, I know that they’ve started a $3 million dollar fund for Black businesses,” Thompson said. “We know the community foundation is convening organizations to talk about this ecosystem and this place and how do we do that.”Cynthia Brown, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, emphasized the convenience of what the center is trying to do. “What we want to be is that one stop where when people come in, where people can come in and check in on those foundational things like LLCs. Are they in good standing? Do you have your tax IDs in place? Those kind of things,” said Brown.The center consists of a number of community partnerships with entities like Amped and their business incubator program as well as Russell Place of Promise. “You don’t know what you don’t know, and for Black business owners in particular, and especially in west Louisville, when you think about all the things that have marginalized this community from redlining to urban renewal,” Brown said. Sow Journey is a business that Thompson runs in the Norton Sports and Learning Center.She got the opportunity after receiving support from the Center for Entrepreneurship who gave her the foundation to run a successful business while maintaining her side job of being a barber. “Soul journey, journeys of the soul are kind of like symbolic to the Juneteenth celebration coming up, and it just tells the journey from Mother Africa. You can see the images in the shirt so like what happened … so souls of the journey are those people still here on a journey,” said Thompson. Brown said Thompson is exactly the kind of story they love.”When I look at Darla, she is the reason we do this,” said Brown. “This is what you hope for all entrepreneurs you work with.””You don’t know those people are out there. It felt like Christmas to me,” said Thompson. “So, it’s a heck of an opportunity, and for those entrepreneurs out there like myself, just keep on dreaming and keep on doing the work.” Just keep doing the work. That is what the center is all about. A historic document published in 2020 by local leaders shows that there is an estimated 13-to-1 wealth gap between white and Black Louisvillians.
Local leaders are celebrating the launch of the Louisville Urban League Center for Entrepreneurship.
The idea for it is to help local Black business owners to thrive.
On Monday, a path forward for Louisville, which started as an idea, became a reality to create generational Black wealth for Black business owners.
It is about creating opportunities where few or none existed before.
“Opportunity, opportunities to sow seeds through t-shirts and leave a message and an impact to tell a story,” said CEO of Sow Journey Darla Thompson.
“We recognize partners like Republic Bank, I know that they’ve started a $3 million dollar fund for Black businesses,” Thompson said. “We know the community foundation is convening organizations to talk about this ecosystem and this place and how do we do that.”
Cynthia Brown, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, emphasized the convenience of what the center is trying to do.
“What we want to be is that one stop where when people come in, where people can come in and check in on those foundational things like LLCs. Are they in good standing? Do you have your tax IDs in place? Those kind of things,” said Brown.
The center consists of a number of community partnerships with entities like Amped and their business incubator program as well as Russell Place of Promise.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, and for Black business owners in particular, and especially in west Louisville, when you think about all the things that have marginalized this community from redlining to urban renewal,” Brown said.
Sow Journey is a business that Thompson runs in the Norton Sports and Learning Center.
She got the opportunity after receiving support from the Center for Entrepreneurship who gave her the foundation to run a successful business while maintaining her side job of being a barber.
“Soul journey, journeys of the soul are kind of like symbolic to the Juneteenth celebration coming up, and it just tells the journey from Mother Africa. You can see the images in the shirt so like what happened … so souls of the journey are those people still here on a journey,” said Thompson.
Brown said Thompson is exactly the kind of story they love.
“When I look at Darla, she is the reason we do this,” said Brown. “This is what you hope for all entrepreneurs you work with.”
“You don’t know those people are out there. It felt like Christmas to me,” said Thompson. “So, it’s a heck of an opportunity, and for those entrepreneurs out there like myself, just keep on dreaming and keep on doing the work.”
Just keep doing the work. That is what the center is all about.
A historic document published in 2020 by local leaders shows that there is an estimated 13-to-1 wealth gap between white and Black Louisvillians.
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