Katrina Urban Entrepreneur Partnership
ORG
Entrepreneur Partnership Katrina Urban Entrepreneur Katrina Urban Entrepreneur Partnership Urban Entrepreneur Partnership
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit group in Kansas City, Mo., dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, joined with the National Urban League and other organizations with an endorsement from the White House to create the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership to give minority businesspeople advice and training needed to overcome financial and other obstacles. Just as the Entrepreneur Partnership was setting up one-stop small-business help centers in several cities, the southernmost being Atlanta, Hurricanes Katrina, and Rita devastated as many as 80,000 Gulf Coast businesses, many of them minority-owned companies. After two more visits to the region, Mr. Williams went back to Kansas City and drew up the Katrina Urban Entrepreneur Partnership, borrowing from the core program but tailoring the new one to the needs of hurricane-affected small businesses.