Event Information
Description
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
6:30-9:00 p.m.
Hilton Garden Inn, 1225 First Street NE
The 3rd annual ABC Awards Reception will highlight and acknowledge the efforts of champions in the asset-building field. These include members of Congress, researchers, business leaders, and practitioners who have contributed greatly to national progress in addressing racial wealth disparities.
Awardees:
- Maxine Waters, Member, U.S. House of Representatives
- Melvin Oliver, President-Elect, Pitzer College
- Michael E. Roberts, President, First Nations Development Institute
- Meizhu Lui, Board Member, Highlander Research and Education Center
Tickets for the reception are $25, $50, and $75. General admission is $25. Attendees purchasing a $50 ticket will receive a summit-branded hat. For a $75 ticket, attendees receive a summit-branded T-shirt and hat. Tickets are not refundable. If you would like a colleague to attend in your place, please contact us at info.colorofwealth@globalpolicysolutions.org.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
9:00 a.m.-3:15 p.m.
U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, Congressional Auditorium
First Street and East Capitol Street NE
The summit seeks to engage Members of Congress, Congressional staff, the media, and the public in a dialogue about the racial wealth gap, its effect on marginalized households, its impact on the U.S. economy, and solutions for closing the gap.
AGENDA
9:00 AM-9:05 AM
Welcome and opening remarks
9:05 AM-9:30 AM
Tri-Caucus Roundtable Conversation
9:30 AM-10:45 AM
Banking on Business to Close the Racial Wealth Gap:
Strengthening Entrepreneurship in Communities of Color
Owning a business can help reduce the racial and ethnic wealth gap by allowing individuals to fulfill their potential to create wealth-generating opportunities for themselves and others. Equitable opportunities for entrepreneurship may also increase jobs and economic development in areas where people of color and those with lower incomes disproportionately reside, which in turn improves the health and socioeconomic status of vulnerable households and communities as well as the economic performance of regional economies. This roundtable will explore the extent to which entrepreneurship can be leveraged to close the racial wealth gap and how to effectively advance an inclusive agenda for creating, growing, and sustaining minority businesses.
Moderator
Jamal Simmons, Partner, The Raben Group
Panelists
- Michael S. Barr, Professor, University of Michigan Law School
- Alejandra Castillo, National Director, Minority Business Development Agency
- Gary Cunningham, President and CEO, Metropolitan Economic Development Association
- Connie Evans, President and CEO, Association for Enterprise Opportunity
10:45 AM-12:00 PM
Sharkathon: Chewing Over Innovative Ideas for an Inclusive Economy
This exciting interactive session will bring together financial service innovators with a panel of business savvy professionals (“sharks”) who will vet the concepts and offer an insider’s perspective on what makes a proposal investment-worthy. The session will feature entrepreneurs with ideas that seek to bring vulnerable populations into the financial mainstream. The innovators will present their concepts and the sharks will use their experience and knowledge to critique their presentations.
Judges/”Sharks”
- Janis Bowdler, Managing Director, Financial Capability, Community Development, and Small Business, JPMorgan Chase Foundation
- Natalie Madeira Cofield, President & CEO, Walker’s Legacy
- Jerry Nemorin, Founder and CEO, LendStreet
- Brandon Andrews, Values Partnerships
12:00 PM-1:15 PM
Lunch
1:15 PM-1:30 PM
Senator Elizabeth Warren
1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Equity-Centered Development:
Inclusive Strategies for Building and Improving Low-Income Communities
Gentrification, a form of economic development that results in high-income residents moving to low-income areas and displacing existing residents in the process, has been widespread in urban communities across the United States. Given the trend, is it possible to implement economic development strategies that benefit existing residents and allow them to remain connected to place? This roundtable will explore case studies and research on economic development in low-income communities and will discuss strategies to maintain and strengthen community wellbeing, including improving health outcomes, providing equal opportunities, and improving neighborhood safety.
Moderator
Janell Ross, Reporter, The Washington Post
- Hector Cordero-Guzman, Professor, The School of Public Affairs, CUNY
- Christy Finsel, Executive Director, Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition
- Gil Berry, Executive Director, Gil Berry and Associates, Inc.
- Patricia Smith, Senior Policy Advisor, The Reinvestment Fund
3:00 PM-3:15 PM
Featured speaker
Organizer Center for Global Policy Solutions
Organizer of 2016 Color of Wealth Summit
The Center for Global Policy Solutions is a 501(c)(3) think tank and action organization that labors in pursuit of a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive world in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive in safe and sustainable environments.
Our mission is to make policy work for people and their environments by advancing economic security, health, education, and civic success for vulnerable populations. Our target groups include people of color, women, children and youth, older adults, and low-income populations. In recognition of these overlapping identities and issues, we use an “intersectional” lens to develop policy and program solutions.
With economic inequality growing and health, education, and civic disparities at alarming levels, we are committed to promoting equitable outcomes for marginalized populations while strengthening communities, the nation, and the world. Our work is centered in the belief that diversity is not a problem, but the basis of prosperity.
