Truist Foundation announced the creation of Where It Starts, a $22 million, multiyear program to strengthen small businesses and open career pathways for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals across the country.
As part of Where It Starts, Truist Foundation awarded grants to three anchor partners, CAEL (the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning), Living Cities, and Main Street America, with CAEL receiving a previously announced $15.7 million grant, and Living Cities and Main Street America receiving a joint $6.3 million grant.
Truist Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Rogers and Truist Foundation President Lynette Bell joined CAEL President Earl Buford, Living Cities President and CEO Joe Scantlebury and Main Street America Interim President and CEO Hannah White to launch the initiative at Truist’s Innovation and Technology Center at its headquarters in Charlotte.
“In collaboration with CAEL, Living Cities, and Main Street America, we will remove barriers to growth and create pathways to opportunity,” Bell said. “Tackling systemic, perpetual inequity starts by taking a whole-person approach. At Truist Foundation, this means partnering with organizations to look at individuals and their unique circumstances and co-creating a solution tailored to their specific need.”
Alongside the foundation, CAEL, Living Cities, and Main Street America will spearhead initiatives that connect to and advance the mission of Where It Starts. CAEL, a national nonprofit working to improve education-to-career pathways for adult learners, will launch Where It Starts: Build Better Careers, a six-year initiative across Charlotte, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Miami, that prioritizes BIPOC and underserved communities by building career paths in professions and industries where these communities have been underrepresented, such as financial services.
“The support of Truist Foundation has profoundly extended the breadth, depth and reach of our mission, creating new ways to boost equitable economic mobility through improved education-to-career pathways for adult learners,” Buford said.
With the Foundation’s support, Living Cities, a member-collaborative working to close racial income and wealth gaps in the U.S., and Main Street America, an organization seeking to advance local community-led economic development, will lead a multi-year strategy, Where It Starts: Breaking Barriers to Business, across Charlotte, Miami, Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville, Tenn. The program will uplift entrepreneurs of color by providing them with tools and resources as well as collaboration opportunities with community leaders to break down local systemic barriers for small business owners.
“Living Cities is honored to be a part of Truist Foundation’s Where It Starts portfolio,” Scantlebury said. “Our involvement reinforces and strengthens our commitment to progress economic opportunity for entrepreneurs of color in the Southeast. Partnering with Truist Foundation, Main Street America, CAEL, city leaders and community partners will help us facilitate wealth-building pathways and foster an economy where individuals and communities can thrive beyond a generation.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Truist Foundation and Living Cities to work alongside community leaders and entrepreneurs of color to co-create more supportive environments,” White said. “This new initiative also furthers Main Street America’s long-term vision that everyone has access to an inclusive and resilient Main Street.”
Where It Starts illustrates the importance of working together – across organizations and industries – to catalyze change, and this is just the start. This long-term initiative will continue to evolve and expand as Truist Foundation establishes more strategic partnerships with nonprofits and embeds itself throughout local communities to collaborate on innovative solutions that exemplify Truist’s purpose to inspire and build better lives.
