Q&A with Russell: A Place of Promise

We recently launched the First Dollar Program to provide early-stage capital to Louisville’s Black and Brown entrepreneurs. Through partnerships, Render Capital provides critical “first dollar” grants to early-stage entrepreneurs who lack capital access due to historic and systemic inequality. The program provides $5,000 grants to businesses at the earliest stage of development, when capital investment is most critical. In this Q&A series, we introduce the four local, Black-led partner organizations whose close work with entrepreneurs makes them vital in facilitating the disbursement of the grant funds. Here is what Russell: A Place of Promise had to say.

Tell us a little bit about Russell: A Place of Promise.

Russell: A Place of Promise (RPOP) is a justice-based initiative being incubated by Cities United and Louisville Metro Government, with fiscal sponsorship by the Community Foundation of Louisville. Our vision of building Black wealth through investment without displacement includes sharing decision-making and leadership with residents through an innovative stakeholder agreement; connecting individuals and families to resources leading to homeownership and traditional and nontraditional business ownership; building pathways to strengthen existing Black-owned businesses; creating connections to career-track jobs; and community ownership of neighborhood assets. We believe that people are assets to their community (creative, capable, and whole) and partners who deserve and are ready for new, equitable investments.

How do you support Black and brown entrepreneurs in the Louisville and Southern Indiana region?

RPOP’s small business strategy is focused on creating new, resident-owned businesses and strengthening existing Black-owned businesses to help them remain in Russell. Black-owned businesses in Russell are predominantly Main Street businesses and family-supporting services that are essential to the culture and economy of the neighborhood. To strengthen them, RPOP created the Russell Small Business Accelerator, a business development program featuring an instructor cohort made up exclusively of Black business owners. We were also very happy that all members of our first accelerator cohort were accepted into AMPED’s Russell Tech Business Incubator.

As a First Dollar Program partner, what trends have you seen in early-stage funding for Black and brown entrepreneurs?

Black and brown entrepreneurs don’t always have access to the same “friends and family” startup funds that white entrepreneurs can secure. One impact of systemic racism is the wealth gap, Black and brown families don’t have the same level of savings and access to liquid assets, because of generations of policy decisions that cut them out of financial services and wealth-building opportunities such as homeownership. SCORE reports that only around 15% of Black entrepreneurs are able to access startup capital from friends and family. Once past that critical startup phase, it can still be challenging to access traditional debt financing, a lack of collateral can be a major barrier to securing loans.

How will First Dollar funds support your work?

We plan to use these funds to support Black entrepreneurs who are starting or scaling a business, identifying folks from Russell who can take advantage of the opportunity. These funds will pair with the next cohort of our Small Business Accelerator to give early-stage business owners a leg up in getting their business off the ground.

Why is it important to support the development of Black and brown businesses specifically?

Locally, around 2% of Louisville businesses are Black-owned, though Black residents make up over 15% of the population. Business ownership represents an opportunity for greater equity, representation, and wealth creation. When it comes to Russell, Black businesses are part of the neighborhood’s legacy and identity, it’s impossible to overstate the significance of its nickname, “the Harlem of the South.” This was a place of great prosperity, vibrancy, and culture, much of it from the Black-owned businesses that once existed on Walnut Street, now Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

How has your work shifted due to COVID and increased attention toward racial injustice?

Russell: A Place of Promise believes Black lives have always mattered, and that loss of life at the hands of state violence is a loss of our collective potential. RPOP calls for solutions, and for city and school budgets that prioritize communities, families, and individual development. We believe we should listen to those most negatively impacted by current systems of power to design and implement changes for a more just future.

Can you share a recent “win” for Russell: A Place of Promise?

We were so excited when one of our advisory board members, Lafesa Johnson, was able to open a storefront for her bakery and sweet shop, Hip Hop Sweet Shop. She took her business from a popular dessert truck to a bakery and storefront in the heart of Russell, something she’d been working on for a long time, but not something she’d planned to do in the middle of a global pandemic. Hip hop culture inspires the space and the treats, highlighting the nostalgic people and places that make it a worldwide-loved genre.

What preconceived notions exist in your line of work?

One major preconceived notion is the idea that communities and individuals who have fewer resources are somehow to blame for their condition, that they don’t want success as badly, and that their choices are bad ones based on some internal flaw. RPOP believes that people are creative, resourceful, and whole, and that it is systems of oppression (systemic racism, to be precise) at the root of what many people believe are outcomes stemming from individual choice.

What’s on the horizon for Russell: A Place of Promise, and what gives you hope for the future?

This fall, RPOP will launch resident-led workgroups to focus on its core areas and wealth-building strategies: housing, workforce and business, and community ownership of neighborhood assets. We’re planning community-focused events to celebrate Russell and its history, releasing an intergenerational activity book, the Ujamaa Workbook, to support family-centered conversations about cooperative economics and generational wealth, and launching another cohort of our Small Business Accelerator.