West Michigan Black Business Alliance asks Grand Rapids to be co‑champion of regional effort

Presenters asked the City of Grand Rapids to partner formally with a rebranded Black Business Voices advisory effort — proposed as the West Michigan Black Business Alliance — and to help scale a Brookings‑style regional inclusive‑economy initiative.

Alvin Hills of the Office of Equity and Engagement introduced presenters from the Urban League, Legacy and Love LLC, and the Grand Rapids African American Community Task Force, saying the work aims to "enhance our black business ecosystem." Eric Brown, Keith Morgan and Saini Jordan outlined a multi‑tiered organizational framework designed to connect businesses across startup‑to‑exit stages and to focus activities on marketing, mentoring and advocacy.

The presenters said the initiative has moved from conception (BBVA 1) into an implementation phase (BBVA 2) and proposed renaming the effort to the West Michigan Black Business Alliance to encourage broader regional participation. "We're asking for the city to partner with West Michigan Black Business Alliance," the presenters said, requesting the city serve as a co‑champion to help attract local, county, state and philanthropic resources.

Presenters highlighted early results: they reported connecting 14 businesses to the city in 2025 (four newly formed firms, 10 existing firms) and said those connections helped secure roughly $300,000 in contracts for three cited businesses, which the presenters described as producing about a 43% aggregate revenue increase for those firms from their stated baselines. They also reported more than 20 public events and 771 participants across programming and partners.

Commissioners pressed for financial and operational specifics. Presenters said the city provided two recent allocations ("Year 1" $50,000 and "Year 2" $125,000) totaling $175,000 to date and said the Urban League has contributed in‑kind time and other non‑cash support. Commissioners asked how the group plans to recruit neighboring municipalities and the county to share costs if the alliance is branded as "West Michigan." Presenters said they have begun outreach (presentations to Wyoming were cited) and that further partnership discussions and follow‑up meetings with city staff are planned. Presenters agreed to provide the committee the seven‑page organizational framework and more detailed KPI materials for staff review.

Presenters referenced Brookings Metro's inclusive‑regional methodology and said the alliance intends to adopt a set of roughly 15 KPI categories to measure institutional alignment and impact. Commissioners requested an apples‑to‑apples comparison to prior city/regional reports so the commission can see what has changed since 2015 and which metrics will guide future policy or funding decisions.

The exchange closed with staff and presenters agreeing to follow up: presenters will deliver the organizational framework to city staff and the commission requested more detailed KPI and budget information as a next step. The commission did not take a formal vote on partnering; the item concluded with the committee accepting the presentation and moving on to the subsequent agenda items.