Regions Bank and The St. Louis Regional Chamber have partnered to bring the Inner City Capital Connections program to St. Louis.
Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) is a national program designed to accelerate small business growth and access to capital. Through the program, inner-city business owners receive cost-free financial education, business training and one-on-one business counseling via intensive coaching sessions with capital providers. A variety of financial experts from Regions Bank and other sources will also coach participating business owners, free of charge.
The goal of the program is to strengthen local businesses, which ICCC, Regions Bank and the Regional Chamber believe will ultimately strengthen the St. Louis area as a whole.
“I’m confident that we can agree that what’s good for the St. Louis region is good for all of us,” said Mike Hart, president for Regions Bank in the Midwest Area.
ICCC focuses on businesses that are growth-oriented and have a presence in urban or economically underserved areas. The program is designed to accelerate small business growth and access to capital. Instructors hail from leading institutions, such as Harvard Business School and Stanford University, and are all business owners. During the class they will lead discussions on strategy, sales and marketing, entrepreneurial finance and talent management.
Since its development in 2005 ICCC representatives from more than 800 businesses have participated in ICCC programs across the country and have secured more than $1.3 billion to grow their businesses, while creating nearly 11,000 jobs in their respective communities. Of program participants nationwide, 74 percent are minorities and 32 percent are women.
“In February, Regions hosted a meeting with local leaders to talk about the needs of the community. From that meeting, we settled on five discussion points,” Hart said.
“Those discussion points were focused on poverty, housing, jobs and education, financial literacy, and small businesses in the St. Louis area. We then got together to decide what we could do to make a difference in these areas in our community.”
From that meeting, Regions decided to bring ICCC to St. Louis.
“We decided to bring this program to St. Louis because it covers all these areas,” Hart said. “We want to improve access for the underserved businesses in our community.”
Joe Reagan, president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, said the challenges of small urban businesses are relevant to the chamber and something that his members can help address.
“All of us need all of us – there is no single opportunity, problem or challenge that we face within our community that we can face alone,” Reagan said.
“We are looking to close the gap of racial discrimination and the concentration of poverty here in our bi-state region. We must work together to make St. Louis a more attractive place, to live, work and invest in.”
ICCC is part of the nonprofit Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter to strengthen America’s inner cities through education and private-sector investment to help create jobs, income and opportunities.
The 2016 program will begin in St. Louis on September 29 at Washington University in St. Louis. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis until the deadline of August 31. There is no cost to apply. For more information or to apply, visit http://icic.org/inner-city-capital-connections/. You may also contact ICCC Program Director Hyacinth Vassell at hvassell@icic.org.
