Truist Foundation Announces Where It Starts, a $22M Initiative To Support Small Businesses and Create Career Opportunities for Communities of Color

CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / January 30, 2023 / Truist Foundation today announced the creation of Where It Starts, a $22 million, multiyear program to strengthen small businesses and open career pathways for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals across the U.S. As part of Where It Starts, Truist Foundation awarded grants to three anchor partners, CAEL (the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning), Living Cities and Main Street America, with CAEL receiving a previously announced $15.7 million grant, and Living Cities and Main Street America today receiving a joint $6.3 million grant.

Truist Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Rogers and Truist Foundation President Lynette Bell joined CAEL President Earl Buford, Living Cities President and CEO Joe Scantlebury and Main Street America Interim President and CEO Hannah White to launch the initiative at Truist's Innovation and Technology Center at its headquarters in Charlotte.

"In collaboration with CAEL, Living Cities and Main Street America, we will remove barriers to growth and create pathways to opportunity," said Bell. "Tackling systemic, perpetual inequity starts by taking a whole-person approach. At Truist Foundation, this means partnering with organizations to look at individuals and their unique circumstances and co-creating a solution tailored to their specific need."

Alongside the foundation, CAEL, Living Cities and Main Street America will spearhead initiatives that connect to and advance the mission of Where It Starts. CAEL, a national nonprofit working to improve education-to-career pathways for adult learners, will launch Where It Starts: Build Better Careers, a six-year initiative across Charlotte, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Miami, that prioritizes BIPOC and underserved communities by building career paths in professions and industries where these communities have been underrepresented, such as financial services.

"The support of Truist Foundation has profoundly extended the breadth, depth and reach of our mission, creating new ways to boost equitable economic mobility through improved education-to-career pathways for adult learners," said Buford.

With the Foundation's support, Living Cities, a member-collaborative working to close racial income and wealth gaps in the U.S., and Main Street America, an organization seeking to advance local community-led economic development, will lead a multi-year strategy, Where It Starts: Breaking Barriers to Business, across Atlanta; Charlotte; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; and Miami. The program will uplift entrepreneurs of color by providing them with tools and resources as well as collaboration opportunities with community leaders to break down local systemic barriers for small business owners.