NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 13, 2024--
Today, Comcast announced 500 additional small business recipients that will receive comprehensive grant packages that include business consultation services, educational resources, a $5,000 monetary grant, creative production, media schedule, and a technology makeover. The distribution of these grants in five new cities is part of Comcast’s ongoing commitment to supporting the growth of all small businesses, while advancing the objectives of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and community investment. Comcast RISE was created to help businesses and their communities thrive, with a focus on economic growth.
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The regions in this round included Atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville, Richmond, VA and southern Colorado. A total of 100 grants per city, or 500 grants overall, were announced today and will be awarded in September 2024, bringing the total number of recipients to date to 14,000.
“Supporting small businesses means investing in the heart of our communities,” said Loren Hudson, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Connectivity and Platforms, Comcast. “By empowering entrepreneurs and small business owners with the skills and resources they need to grow and succeed, we help ensure our local neighborhoods can flourish and thrive too.”
Comcast RISE was created in November 2020 to help small businesses hardest hit by COVID-19, from bakeries and barber shops to childcare centers and cleaning services, by providing the grants needed to survive and recover.
The program has evolved from helping businesses survive the pandemic, to helping businesses and their communities thrive with a focus on economic growth.
Grant packages include:
COACHING SESSIONS - Business assessment and coaching that provide business owners with recommendations on how to help grow their businesses.
EDUCATION RESOURCES- 12-month access to online entrepreneurship courses, learning modules and resources for small business owners.
MONETARY GRANT - $5,000 monetary grant.
CREATIVE PRODUCTION & MEDIA - Professionally produced 30-second TV commercial, plus a media strategy consultation and a 180-day linear media schedule. (Taxes and other fees may apply for production and media services.)
TECHNOLOGY MAKEOVER - Computer equipment and Internet, Voice and Cybersecurity services for 12 months. (Taxes and other fees may apply for tech makeover services.)
In addition, any small business owner can visit the Comcast RISE destination on X1 featuring aggregated small business news, tips, insights, and more. X1 customers can say “Comcast RISE” into the voice remote.
Comcast RISE is part of Project UP, the company’s $1 billion commitment to advance digital equity through programs and community partnerships that connect people to the Internet, advance economic mobility and open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers and creators.
More information is available at www.ComcastRISE.com.
About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.
Comcast announced 500 additional small business recipients that will receive comprehensive grant packages. (Photo: Business Wire)
CHICAGO (AP) — Set inside a once-dilapidated 1938 building on Chicago’s near West Side, a one-of-a-kind museum hopes to change the perception of public housing in America.
A former federal housing project that underwent a $17.5 million transformation, the National Public Housing Museum opens Friday and showcases recreated apartments from three different eras. It’s the brainchild of public housing residents who wanted to tell a more complete story about their lives, from the joys of living in tight-knit communities to the effects of racist housing policies.
“The biggest artifact in our collection is the building itself,” said Lisa Yun Lee, the museum’s executive director.
Remnants of a paint-chipped wall, with cracks and graffiti, greets visitors at the entrance. Original mailboxes with apartment numbers scrawled in marker are displayed near items belonging to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up in New York public housing. An outdoor garden is lined with decades-old animal statues, once the centerpiece of a Chicago public housing courtyard.
Museum organizers hope to revive such a gathering place and say the location in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood is important. The museum complex includes 15 new public housing apartments where residents will live. Next door is a city library branch that also has affordable housing units. A mixed-income development is under construction nearby.
“It’s a museum that says, ‘There are things that everybody deserves,’” said Sunny Fischer, a consultant for foundations, who grew up in public housing and is the museum board's chair.
Museum admission is free though guided tours cost money.
The museum's opening faced delays, due to fundraising challenges and different mayoral administrations with changing agendas. The building was given to the museum by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The $17.5 million price tag is a mix of private donations, including from foundations, and state and federal money.
Residents started planning the museum about 18 years ago as the nation’s third-largest city was in the midst of demolishing public housing high-rises. The ambitious and controversial improvement plan, which displaced thousands of families, included tearing down Cabrini-Green, an infamous housing project portrayed in the “Candyman” horror movies.
Residents didn’t want their stories to be wiped out with the towers. Among the original planners was activist Francine Washington.
The 69-year-old has lived in Chicago public housing almost her entire life. It’s where she raised a family and worked as a property manager and in food service. She serves on the museum’s board and hopes to help counteract stereotypes about public housing residents.
“Show them what we have accomplished, what we have done, what we have been through,” she said. “Even though we’re in public housing, we’re human beings. We want the same things in life that they want.”
One of the museum’s goals is to show how the racial makeup of public housing in Chicago and other places changed, largely due to racist housing authority practices. For instance, Black residents were concentrated in high-rises in segregated communities with few opportunities to move.
The restored apartments inside the former Jane Addams Homes building feature original artifacts donated by the families of former residents, including clothing and dishes. The 1930s apartment belonged to a Jewish family while one from the 1950s was an Italian family's home. The third, from the 1970s, was the childhood home of the Rev. Marshall Hatch, a well-known Black pastor and Chicago activist.
Museum organizers say they also were inspired by New York City’s Tenement Museum, which highlights preserved tenement apartments on the Lower East Side. But Chicago organizers say they took it a step further with a high-tech spin, including recorded oral histories that play as visitors walk by, handheld screens and a video by a shadow-puppet theater company that illustrates barriers Black families faced in finding housing, like redlining.
At the same time, the museum showcases lesser-known bright spots in public housing history, like resident-organized safety patrols and cooperatives to sell groceries. Public housing residents called “ambassadors” also work on museum staff.
“We had to change the narrative about public housing,” said Lee. “When you said the words ‘Cabrini-Green’ that brought up a visceral feeling in people. And usually that was one that was a stereotype of what it means to be poor and Black in America. Creating exhibits that challenge that narrative was a really important part of our work.”
Perhaps the best example is the “REC Room,” a music studio where visitors can scan albums from numerous genres to learn about musicians who lived in public housing. That includes Elvis and Salt-N-Pepa, whose group member DJ Spinderella lived in public housing and is a museum curator.
A large black and white photo on the wall shows beaming residents dancing at a Cabrini-Green house party.
It’s one of the favorite parts of the museum for Gentry Quinones, a museum staff member who lives in Chicago public housing.
“There was also joy and community,” she said.
Mailboxes salvaged from 1322 West Taylor Street are on display at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
A copy of the Jane Addams News is displayed at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
A beddroom is recreated to look like the home of the Rev. Elijah Hatch, his wife Helen Holmes Hatch and their eight children, who moved into public housing in 1960, at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
An REO Speedwagon record is on loan from George Floyd's sister LaTonya Floyd as part of a collection of objects that tell stories about peoples' lives in public housing at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Kitchen items are part of the Turovitz Family Apartment exhibit at the National Public Housing Museum, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
A rotary phone is part of a collection of objects that tell stories about peoples' lives in public housing at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Museum Educator Ambassador Gentry Quinones, a public housing resident, talks about an exhibit at the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Executive Director Dr. Lisa Yun Lee speaks about the opening of the National Public Housing Museum, built in the last remaining building of the 1930s WPA-era Jane Addams Homes, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
A video projection by Manual Cinema uses animation, shadow puppets and oral installation to help museum visitors "understand why more than 50 years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, we are still living in a segregated world with a growing racial wealth gap," according to the National Public Housing Museum, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
