Association of Minority Contractors and Business Owners Welcome White House Officer of Public Engagement to Oakland

Earlier this month, the White House’s Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement and Outreach, Michael Blake, visited Oakland, CA, where he addressed the African-American and minority business community at a special evening discussion hosted by National Association of Minority Contractors President Len Turner and Oakland Councilmember Desley Brooks.

The event, held at the Everett and Jones BBQ restaurant in the Jack London Square District, gave Blake an opportunity to share the Obama Administration’s vision for urban entrepreneurship with the community. Speaking about his childhood experience as a poor immigrant living in the Bronx in a Jamaican household, Blake said nothing would impede his intent and commitment to help minority businesses across the country.  Blake talked about his humble upbringing and how character, values and hard work helped him to make it through college and eventually to the White House becoming the first African American White House Director of Outreach.  Instantly connecting with the crowd, Blake gained attentive approval.

Blake emphasized the importance of small business to the American economy as a major priority to the Obama administration along with job creation.  He stated that the greatest need is access to capital and new program initiatives such as the Small Business Lending Fund–a $30 billion fund that encourages lending to small businesses by providing capital to qualified community banks with assets of less than $10 billion.

Blake discussed the White House’s new urban economic initiatives that will help may people who are starting businesses strictly out of need, stating the critical need to make resources available to small business such as education, training, technical assistance and access to capital as seen in Atlanta with the launch of the Entrepreneur Center for Women which provides free services, business incubation.   Other programs and resources mentioned included the Career One Stop Centers across the U.S. and HUD’s new FHA mortgage forbearance that will extend 90 day forbearance up to three years for displaced workers.

In the last fifteen minutes of his speech, Blake opened up for questions and answers to the group.  Barbara Cohen of the African American Action Network asked Blake about programs to help community based organizations that or not for profit.  He responded with information on the SBA’s Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs (PRIME), which provides assistance to various organizations that provide services to help low-income entrepreneurs in areas of training, education and technical assistance to gain access to capital to establish and expand their small businesses.  He announced that he was working with John Bryant CEO of Operation HOPE on youth and entrepreneurship, sharing that HOPE has developed a mobile application for finance and business planning that can be downloaded into a cell phone.

The event was promoted through electronic newsletters and databases of Jamaica Association of Northern California (JANC) and NAMC.  Dorothy Everette King, the owner of well-known restaurant Everette and Jones BBQ, personally escorted the guest to reserved table to satisfy his long anticipation for a plate of the ribs smothered in an award winning sauce.   

National Association of Minority Contractors (NMAC) was founded in 1965 by Raymond Dones a construction engineer, innovator and advocate who formed the organization to help mitigate fair practices in the process of bidding, awarding and the distribution of governmental contracts to minorities in the Bay Area.  The organization has since become global with chapters in cities across the United States, United Kingdom and in Africa.