Our Goal is to lay the foundations for equitable economic growth — entrepreneurial and business development for people of color, financial literacy, workforce development and international trade — that generates revenues, creates jobs, supports affordable housing, and sustainably builds their community’s tax base. Economically stronger communities support families and create improvements in education, housing, environmental resiliency, health and other quality-of-life factors.
Programs Overview
1. Business Incubator/Accelerator: Designed to deliver a more effective and streamlined system of capacity-building resources and business services to small business and minority entrepreneurs at all revenue levels in the Mobile area and in Gulf Coast states, especially through federal contracting and supplier diversity directives. Program priorities are businesses in healthcare, technology, manufacturing, construction and international trade, especially those owned by next-generation millennials.
2. Diversity & Inclusion Advocacy: Designed to encourage local, state and federal governments and contractors to hire and promote small- and minority-owned business /entrepreneurs /career workers. M.O.V.E. proposes to work with NAACP Economic Development Committees in Gulf Coast states, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Urban Leagues, Chambers of Commerce, and other organizations to increase economic opportunities for under-served individuals and communities.
3. Workforce Development: Designed to connect students/workers in under-served communities to build a pipeline of high-paying skilled labor jobs that need to be filled as older generations retire, and help them adapt in a disruptive technological age. Program priorities include educating the public about the need for these jobs and creating networking opportunities for youth and un/under-employed workers seeking to build careers and businesses in lucrative skilled labor and technological trades.
4. International Trade Development: Designed to build the capacity of minority entrepreneurs and the economic development infrastructure of under-served communities in the Mobile area and the Gulf Coast in order to successfully engage and attract foreign investments and increase business trading opportunities primarily in African countries, Cuba, the Caribbean and other select countries.
5. Financial Literacy Development: Designed to upgrade community knowledge about the fundamentals of personal finance – cash management, debt management, emergency fund creation, insurance protection (includes life insurance, critical illness insurance, disability insurance etc.), investments, asset accumulation and estate planning. Programs focus on preparing individuals and families to better manage money, increase income through business development and generational wealth building.