Explanation
This ordinance authorizes Columbus City Council to enter into contract with The Ohio State University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
It has long been a priority of Columbus City Council, and the city at large, to foster and promote upward economic mobility within the minority business enterprise community. Through public forums and surveys of the community, it is evident that barriers remain for many of those businesses to achieve the degree of success necessary for sustainability and growth.
The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is an interdisciplinary unit within the university and has the ability to harness the resources of many of the other schools and colleges within the university. In 2016, Columbus City Council contracted with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on a series of pilot programs. One of these programs paired teams of students with local non-profit and minority businesses to provide management analysis and consultation services, products which would otherwise be unattainable for small businesses. This program successfully demonstrated the value of the service and the need for ongoing provision.
Through the course of the work, the demand for a permanent institution became increasingly clear, and as a result the concept for the C-Biz Incubator/Accelerator was created. The purpose of C-Biz will be unique to central Ohio in that it is intended to serve established businesses, in contrast to new enterprises. C-Biz is targeted to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) and will specifically target enterprise growth within the Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization (NCR) districts.
This contract with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is for the development of the C-Biz strategic plan. The Center will deliver a strategic plan that will guide the development of C-Biz in 2018.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Special Income Tax Fund.
Title
To authorize Columbus City Council...
Click here for full text