I am Jermaine Ranger, and I work for The Tetley as the Facilities and FOH Manager.

For Black History Month, I wanted to use The Tetley’s blog as a platform to spread the word about Black Owned Economy and share some exciting news.

In my spare time I am part of the Black Owned Economy team that initially set up a Facebook group around the time of the tragic death of George Floyd.

Within a couple of weeks we soon realised that we had much more than just a Facebook group: we had built a community, and had a real chance to make a positive change towards the inequality experienced by black owned businesses.

When I talk about inequality towards black owned businesses, you might ask what exactly I mean. As an example; did you know that with Venture Capital Investment, less than 1% is awarded to black owned businesses? Why is that? Or more to the point, what can we do to change that?

Our Vision

To empower a black owned economy so that more wealth and equity is distributed within the black community.

Our Mission

To inspire, educate and celebrate black owned businesses through the facilitation and collaboration of a community of black owned businesses, entrepreneurs, advocates and allies who believe in financial and social equality. We will provide events, mentoring, training, business resources, an online directory of black owned businesses, providing a safe space for conversation and elevation.

Because of the work the Black Owned Economy team have put in over the last year, we are proud to announce that Black Owned Economy have been selected to participate in the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator Programme.

This programme helps leaders harness the power of their community or group to turn impactful ideas into action.

Over 130 participants across nine regions have been selected out of possible 13,000 applicants.

This is a massive opportunity for black owned businesses and we are super excited for the opportunity to learn, grow and scale our impact within our community!

We cannot wait to be able to support our community and continue to uplift the wonderful businesses within Black owned Economy.

About

Find out more about Black Owned Economy here: blackownedeconomy.co.uk

Find out more about the Facebook Community Accelerator Programme here: facebook.com/community/accelerator