State Grant Awards Haverhill $95,000 for Minority-Owned Business Program

WHAV News Staff By |

Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy joined Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, The American City Coalition Executive Director Christine Araujo, Principal of Afrikai and owner and Chief Curator of Black Market Nubian Kai Grant, Representative Jon Santiago, and local community and business leaders to announce the awards at Black Market. (Courtesy photograph.)

Haverhill is receiving $95,000 for a minority-owned business program.

Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday announced the grant as part of the Baker-Polito administration’s $2 million Urban Agenda Grant Program, paying for for 23 projects statewide. In Haverhill, a statement said, the grant will “help achieve a shared economic prosperity in Haverhill through workforce connections to good paying jobs and minority-owned business growth, sustainability and formation.”

“Our administration is committed to partnering with local leaders and community organizations that are on the ground in urban neighborhoods to encourage collaborative, high-impact projects that directly impact the quality of life and access to opportunity of residents,” said Baker. “The flexibility of the Urban Agenda program enables investments in a wide-range of initiatives that train unemployed individuals for jobs, assist local entrepreneurs and prepare small businesses for success.”

WHAV is asking for specifics about the Haverhill project. Lawrence CommunityWorks is also receiving $100,000 for the support of the Community Educator Pipeline Program to help diversify the local educator workforce, meet growing education employer demand and improve the job skills and career paths of low-income, Latino residents. The grant adds both early education provider certification and Para-to-Teacher training tracks to the already successful Para-educator training pilot program of the cross-sector collaborative Lawrence Working Families Initiative.

In this round of the Urban Agenda program, the administration highly ranked projects or initiatives directly addressing any of the recommendations issued by the Black Advisory Commission and the Latino Advisory Commission, established by Baker in 2017. Applicants were encouraged to enhance partnerships from within the Black and Latino communities and to prioritize changes that would enhance community partnerships, strengthen small business, increase workforce participation and expand opportunity in ways that drive diversity and inclusiveness.

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