briddging the ethnic economic divide- claudia cody- uofm extension[1]
TRANSCRIPT
Bridging the Ethnic Economic divide
The Case of Ethnic Chambers Business Retention and Expansion Program
Claudia CodyAssistant Extension Professor
Community Economics
Center for Community Vitality
Project Details and Factoids
Project Funders: The Otto Bremer Foundation, Ramsey County, Cities of
Minneapolis and St. Paul. Additional funders will be
joining in weeks to come.
Timeline: Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has convened the group
since Fall of 2007. The project goes through Dec31,
2010.
Financial Factoid: Average buying power of state’s African Americans,
Hispanics and Asians roughly tripled between 1990 and
2007.
Population Factoid: Minnesota’s communities of color are expected to double
in population size by 2030.
Project Factoid: The project leaders have conducted face-to-face interviews
with ethnic-owned businesses in the Twin Cities and
surrounding areas. The data will be used to assist in the
development of future projects – with community and
governmental resources – that will respond to the needs
of these businesses.
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
Project LeadershipVal Vargas– CEO, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota
Barbara Davis – President, Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce
Alice Smoot Gentry – Inclusiveness in Contracting Program, Ramsey
County
Irene Rodriguez – Senior Program Officer, African American Action
Council
Tran Nhon – Vietnamese American Business Association
Pam Standing - Executive Director, Minnesota American Indian
Chamber of Commerce
Henry Ongeri – President, Pan African Business Alliance
Seng Tchaa – MN Hmong Chamber of Commerce
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
The Task Force (who)• Between 20 and 30 people
– Including a 5 person leadership team
• Characteristics– Recognized and respected community leaders
– Representative of all segments of the community
– Ability to work easily with others
• At least four major groups represented– Local development professionals
– Business owners/operators
– Local government officials
– Educators
6
More Project Partners
• MN Restaurant, Lodging and
Resort and Campgrounds
• Minnesota Department of
Employment and Economic
Development
• City of Saint Paul
• Hi way Federal Credit Union
• Immigrant Community
Roundtable
• MN State Colleges and
Universities Office of the
Chancellor
• St. Paul Chamber of Commerce
• Minority Business Development
and Retention
• Hospitality Minnesota
• Planning and Economic
Development Office City of Saint
Paul
• Charities Review Council
• MCCD
• Metropolitan Council
• American Indian Economic
Development Fund
• State of Minnesota Human
Services
Goals of Ethnic ChambersBR&E Visitation Program
• Demonstrate to local businesses that the community appreciates their contribution to the economy
• Help existing businesses solve problems
• Assist businesses in using programs aimed at helping them become more competitive
• Develop strategic plans for long-range BR&E activities
• Build community capacity to sustain growth and development
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
More Ethnic ChambersBR&E Benefits
• Good representation of concerns of Ethnically owned Chambers’ membership in the geographic area of program.
• Development of Case Examples – policy development
• Improved Public Relations with Existing Firms
• Stronger collaboration between local development agencies, local governments, citizens, educators, local ethnically owned businesses, and ethnic chambers of commerce.
• Better understanding by local leaders of the strengths and weaknesses of their community’s local business climate.
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
Business Selection Process
Random Sampling
Goal: Generalize from the sample to the population
from which the sample is taken.
Sample: Sampling method was stratified when
possible, otherwise based on each Chamber’s
case. No more than 30 per chamber
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
Main Survey Areas
• General Information
• Product/Service
• Labor Force
• Training
• Technology
• Cash Flow
• Business Functions
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Civic Engagement
• Business Changes
• Future Location Decisions
• Community Factors
©2008 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved
Four Priority Projects in Implementation
• 1. Advocacy
• 2. One Stop Shop Access to Funding
• 3. Repository
• 4. One Roof - Joint Council Service Center
How to Advance Diverse
Intergroup Economic
Development Projects?
Project Challenges• Often cohesive ingroups are in
competition with one another
• How to gather support from the
dominant majority for a program
targeted towards an underserved
community? (Funding, other
resources)
• How to serve the most number of
ethnic businesses with the least
amount of resources and
resistance from outgroups?
• Geographically disperse program
audience
• What is different this time?
Large Number of Known Divides
Intergroup, Ingroup, and in Subgroups
Ethnicity Age
Political affiliation Sexual orientation
Tribe City/Neighborhood/county/county
Family Ties Relationship among genres
Level of knowledge of American
business practices
Tradition of Business ownership
Emerging Divides Unknown Divides
Time – multiple frameworksLeaps, "fertile stalls”, linear, circular, sequential, non-sequential
Leadership styles
Advancing the Multi-Ethnic Chambers
Business Retention and Expansion Project
1
• Who are the project Initiator(s)/Convener(s)?Leadership team representative of all main conveners (chambers, funders, government agencies supporting project)
2
• Stakeholder Analysis & Power Versus Interest Any additional key convener lifted from this map who should be in the leadership and task force teams?
3
• Leadership Asset Mapping ( based on Kretzman and McKnight)
Any additional key convener lifted from this map who should be in the leadership and task force teams?
4• Promotion of Positive Intergroup Relations
Building Enduring Trust
•Encourage Contact
•Networking event for all board members from each Ethnic
Chamber, funders, and other members of the leadership
team.
•Attendance to special events of team members – when
invited.
•Monthly 1 hour meetings – regular contact
• Informal gatherings with no shop talk ( lunches, funerals,
etc)
•Workshops
•Job Fairs
Leadership Asset Mapping
Ethnic Entrepreneurship
Groups/Organizations Institutions
Individuals
Formal/Informal LeadersOther
Who
Assets
Who
Assets
Who
Assets
Who
Assets
5• Promotion of Positive Intergroup Relations
Building Enduring Trust
• Discouragement of “groupthink” – No stereotyped view of
the outgroup as “evil”. (Janis, 1982)
•Intergroup leadership training of core project team
Training on working on committees productively
Leadership Team working Agreement
Committee Asset Mapping
Emotional
Responses
Interpersonal
Skills
Focus on
Procedure
Positive bias
Committee
Asset
Mapping
5• Promotion of Positive Intergroup Relations
Building Enduring Trust
•Elimination of Zero-Sum Scenarios &Realistic conflict Theory
Superordinate Goal reduces Intergroup Conflict
Reduces ingroup/outgroup distinctions
Helps group members recategorize their own group
identity into a common group identity
(Nelson 2006)
5• Promotion of Positive Intergroup Relations
Building Enduring Trust
http://mnjointcouncil.org/
INGROUP
Vietnamese-American
Chamber of Commerce
INGROUP
Pan African Chamber of Commerce
INGROUP
MN Hmong Chamber of Commerce
INGROUP
Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce
INGROUP
Minnesota American
Indian Chamber of Commerce
INGROUP
MN Hispanic Chamber
SuperordinateGoals
SuMutual Intergroup Differentiation Model
5• Promotion of Positive Intergroup Relations
Building Enduring Trust
•The Minnesota Multi-Ethnic Chambers Joint Council
Mutual Intergroup differentiation Model * Promotion of dual
identity (Hewstone & Brown 1986)
Each Ethnic Chamber identifies with individual
subgroup(chambers) and with superordinate group(joint
council)
Each chamber maintains its own identity, funding,
membership while working within the realm of the joint council
shared goals.