Creating Opportunity for Communities of Color Through Entrepreneurship

Poverty stands in the way of far too many children in the United States, particularly kids of color. Their families lack the assets—emergency savings or homeownership, for example—to help weather unexpected expenses or life changes, or to pave the way for greater stability and success for the next generation.

This is a big problem, not just for these children and families, but also for the entire nation, as children of color—who disproportionately contend with poverty and other obstacles—will soon represent the majority of kids in the United States. That means more than half of America’s young people may not have the chance they deserve to realize their full potential. 

As a nation, then, we must fight poverty on multiple fronts, connecting parents with training and job opportunities that enable them to support their children, and helping children meet developmental milestones so that they can succeed in school and beyond.

As part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s commitment to ensuring that all kids have the opportunity to succeed and thrive, we intentionally pursue strategies to address the racial inequities that continually undermine child and family well-being. This commitment extends to our social (or mission or impact) investing: We seek to leverage our endowment for larger-scale impact. We, like several contributors in this series, see the value of entrepreneurship as a path to economic opportunity and wealth for communities of color—particularly in the South, where kids and families consistently fare worse than in other regions.

Click here to read the full article from Lisa Hamilton, President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review