Mid-Missouri Business Week: minority and women business enterprises

The city of Columbia has been working on its three-year strategic plan to improve the city in several different ways, with two of its main focuses being on social equity and encouraging minority- and women-owned businesses.

According to the city’s latest progress report about the plan, the city hosted its first Contractors Expo, held eight workshops for minority and women business owners and added 45 new companies to the Minority and Women Business Enterprises (M/WBE) directory just last year. The directory is run by the Supplier Diversity Program Development.

ABC 17’s Deborah Kendrick sat down with Columbia’s director of the Supplier Diversity Program Development, James Whitt, to talk about the strategic plan and how his work encourages minority and women business owners to come to this community.

“If we can grow our minority businesses, they will hire people, and hopefully those jobs are living-wage jobs. That’s what we want to concentrate on — producing more living-wage jobs here in Columbia,” Whitt said.