The Greater Houston Partnership, the Southern Communities Initiative’s lead community organization for Houston, Texas, is an economic development engine that serves as the “largest chamber of commerce in the Houston region.” The organization aims to promote the economic growth of the Greater Houston area – which spans 12 counties – through championing efforts that attract leading global companies to the area, creating new jobs for residents, and growing the region’s gross domestic product. Established in 1840, the Partnership now works with over 900 member companies.
Efforts that prioritize racial equity form the core of the Partnership’s comprehensive strategy for sustained growth, titled “Houston Next.” To support this strategy, the Partnership announced “One Houston Together,” a plan to mobilize the business community around reducing inequities, particularly in the corporate talent pipeline. A key goal is to increase spending across Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) in the Houston area to help boost racial diversity in the supply chain and procurement.
Accelerating racial equity funding is also a targeted outcome for the Southern Communities Initiative, launched in 2021 to make a difference in six Southern communities that are home to more than half of the nation’s African American population. The Southern Communities Initiative directs investment resources to high-impact community organizations focused on racial equity. The initiative is supported by Paypal, Boston Consulting Group and a leading global investment firm, Vista Equity Partners, of which Robert F. Smith is Founder, Chairman and CEO.
The Greater Houston Partnership’s Four Areas of Focus
The Greater Houston Partnership’s efforts to support the racial equity priorities of the Southern Communities Initiative focus on four main areas: entrepreneurship and supplier diversity, access to capital, education and workforce development and digital access. The Partnership is working to increase the volume and value of Black-owned businesses by increasing MBE spending and supporting workforce advancement for people of color. As part of that effort, the organization is spending $2 million as part of a partnership between One Houston Together and the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council to increase MBE certification efforts and scale technical assistance programs.
The Partnership will also provide up to $30 million to four to five Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) to modernize their core banking systems, expand their marketing efforts and help hire and train staff to both increase loan capacity and borrower assistance, creating more opportunities for credit building in the community.
Working with Student Freedom Initiative, the Partnership will provide $120 million to support up to 1,200 Black STEM students per year at seven participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Texas, an effort that will produce more than 5,000 additional college graduates and qualify hundreds of graduates for senior executive positions. Finally, the Partnership will provide $80 million in donations to local organizations working to set up internet hotspots and offer laptops in as many as 145,000 homes in the Houston region. Within this pledge, the organization will additionally increase community outreach efforts in low-income neighborhoods to get households onto Emergency Broadband Benefits to connect them quicker.
Learn more about the Southern Communities Intiative’s efforts to increase racial equity in Houston and other communities.
