A ground-breaking network of business support hubs that have helped grow 300 companies in some of the region’s most ethnically diverse communities is to expand thanks to new funding from West Midlands mayor Richard Parker.
Two new Community Business Growth Hubs have opened at Colebridge Trust in Chelmsley Wood, Solihull, and The Savoy Centre in Netherton, Dudley, run by Black Country Housing Group in partnership with SWEDA (Skills Work and Enterprise Development Agency).
They will give even more local entrepreneurs the advice and funding they need to secure new investment, win more business and create jobs in their own communities. This support is also being extended to disabled and female-led businesses, and those in deprived neighbourhoods.
The new hubs will build on the success of the first five launched by the mayor last year in Coventry, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Birmingham (two hubs).
The mayor’s Growth Plan sets outs plans to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of people from all walks of life to help fire up the regional economy and raise living standards.
He said: “No one should be held back from fulfilling their potential, least of all because of their race, identity or background. These hubs are playing an essential role in breaking down barriers and unlocking entrepreneurial spirit, so more of our people and places can feel the benefit as we get our economy firing on all cylinders again.”
The West Midlands is one of the UK’s most ethnically diverse regions with the most recent Census data showing almost half the population is now non-White British.
Figures show people from ethnic communities are twice as likely to start a business but less than half of them survive long enough to become income generating – compared to two thirds of white-owned companies.
Research shows that female led and disabled led entrepreneurs are similarly less likely to access funding and growth support.
The region’s seven Community Business Growth Hubs are funded by the Mayor and run in partnership with trusted community organisations, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), Business Growth West Midlands (BGWM), and the region’s Race Equalities Taskforce.
They provide one-to-one expert advice, workshops and networking events, and direct links into regional and national support and funding programmes, as well as providing much-needed investment in the community locations in which they are based.
Establishing a network of community led hubs to break down these barriers to business success is also one of the key actions in the Race Equalities Taskforce’s first five-year strategy.
A full list of Community Business Growth Hubs across the West Midlands:
