- 2 hours ago
Economic mobility and business competitiveness are deeply connected. At a time when employers face workforce shortages, demographic shifts, and rapid technological change, companies that invest in expanding opportunity and developing diverse talent pipelines are better positioned to grow, innovate, and compete. Yet efforts commonly described as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly politicized, creating uncertainty for business leaders navigating workforce strategy and long-term growth.
This conversation will explore why investing in talent from all communities is not simply a social initiative, but a business imperative. Panelists will examine the connection between workforce participation, economic mobility, corporate governance, innovation, and economic performance, while discussing how employers can build stronger talent pipelines, strengthen organizational resilience, and create pathways to prosperity that benefit workers, businesses, and the broader economy.
Shawna Young, CEO of Camelback Ventures
Aniesia Williams, Managing Partner of dreambloc
Ken Oliver, CEO of the JUMP Project
Jephtha Snow, COO of National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA)
This conversation will explore why investing in talent from all communities is not simply a social initiative, but a business imperative. Panelists will examine the connection between workforce participation, economic mobility, corporate governance, innovation, and economic performance, while discussing how employers can build stronger talent pipelines, strengthen organizational resilience, and create pathways to prosperity that benefit workers, businesses, and the broader economy.
Shawna Young, CEO of Camelback Ventures
Aniesia Williams, Managing Partner of dreambloc
Ken Oliver, CEO of the JUMP Project
Jephtha Snow, COO of National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA)
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FunTranscript
00:06Hello, hello. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Well, good morning. Okay, wait a minute. We got to do a
00:16little bit better than that. Good morning. That's what I'm talking about. I love it. Good morning. So, welcome to
00:23day two of the Global Black Economic Forum.
00:25I am Anicia Williams, Managing Partner External Relations at DreamBlock, and today we are talking about the future of economic
00:33mobility. We often hear a lot of buzzwords a lot in this space, but we're going to get real today.
00:40Economic mobility only becomes a reality when training, jobs, money, and business growth all work together in our own neighborhoods.
00:50We are at a critical moment. Just this month, July 1, the new workforce
00:55Pell Grant program is in effect, and that opens up federal aid for short-term training programs. This is a
01:02game changer for our community. It means shorter, faster pathways to livable wage careers without the multi-year debt burden.
01:11So, we are not here for quick fixes today. We're here to talk about how we build permanent systems that
01:18turn these opportunities into lifelong success.
01:21We ready panelists? All right. So, I am very much so thrilled to be joined by these four amazing leaders
01:30doing just that. I'm going to let Mr. Ken Oliver introduce himself as well. We have Jepetha Snow, we have
01:38Dr. Jitali Bhutan, and we have Ms. Shawna Young.
01:42My name is Ken Oliver. I'm the president and CEO of the Justice and Upward Mobility Project, also affectionately known
01:48as JUMP, which was founded by Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan brand and former president of the Portland Trailblazers.
01:56Good afternoon. My name is Jepetha Snow. I am the chief operating officer for the National African American Insurance Association,
02:02known as NAYA.
02:04Cheers. I'm Dr. Jitali Bellington. Everyone stays Dr. J. And I am the founder of Borderless Prosperity and Brilliant Minds
02:12Unite.
02:13And we invest in 10 countries around the world, employees, over 500 employees.
02:18And I'm Shawna Young, CEO of Kemenback Ventures. We are a venture philanthropy firm, early stage.
02:24We have early stage capital, early stage entrepreneurs, typically from communities that are underfunded.
02:29Amazing. Could you guys please give these folks a round of hand clap?
02:33All right. All right. So we're going to kick this off and open it up right now with Shawna.
02:39Shawna, you work with a lot of talented founders who often hit a wall when they're trying to scale.
02:45What are funders still missing about this talent? And how do we build better pathways to a real livable wage
02:53growth?
02:55Absolutely. I think it's important for us to understand that our founders, community-based founders, have lived experience.
03:01They understand not just problems they might be solving for, but innovations for our own communities.
03:07And so when we think about Kemenback Ventures, we give $40,000 to $50,000 of early stage capital,
03:13which over 10 years has turned into a $10 million investment into 220 founders.
03:19They've turned into $435 million of follow-on funding.
03:24So it tells us that if we invest early in our own community, in our own entrepreneurs, that they can
03:31make changes that are important.
03:32And I would say now more than ever, in this time of disruption, that we have to make sure that
03:38we're giving early stage capital to community-based entrepreneurs.
03:41We know that less than 1% of venture capital dollars go to black entrepreneurs, and so we have to
03:49change that.
03:51So, Ken, the job market often overlooks people with past justice involvement.
03:58What's one major misconception that employers have, and what should someone look for in a company that truly values their
04:06potential?
04:07Sure. I mean, I think companies underestimate just how dope we are, if I'm just being transparent.
04:12We're some of the most talented, gifted people on the planet, and I can share, and our founder can share,
04:19that some of the most smartest people that we've ever met are behind prison walls.
04:23And so when you think about that 49% of black youth between 16 or 25 have an arrest or
04:29conviction record, that's half of our youth.
04:32One-third of all black men have an arrest or conviction record.
04:37When we're talking about economic mobility and economics in the black community, this is not just a criminal justice problem.
04:42It's an economic justice problem.
04:44And so I think it's the age-old story of being undervalued.
04:48We're undervalued in general in this particular capitalist system, right?
04:52But what Larry and I are focused on is making sure that everyone in our community has the opportunity to
04:57get the skills necessary to compete,
04:59that we focus on entrepreneurship, that we focus on working with companies who do think progressively about inclusive hiring strategies
05:07and teach them how to hire our folks, whether they come from prison or whether they have a record or
05:12whatever that is.
05:14And we also spend a lot of time teaching about the economic and business case value of what it means
05:20to hire somebody who happens to have a record, right?
05:23Most of the time those records occur when they're youth.
05:26And so it's important for us to speak to a national movement of narrative change around what our value proposition
05:32is.
05:33Our founder did 10 years in prison and rose up to become the chairman of the Jordan brand and the
05:39president of an NBA team.
05:40He broke every single myth that was out there about black males in general, but about black justice-involved male.
05:46And we believe that everybody has the opportunity to become a Larry Miller, and that's what we work every day
05:51to do.
05:52So if I could just pass the ball back to you, how do we break that down for everyday people
06:01that, you know, don't have the connections?
06:04You know, my brother may have been incarcerated, you know, whomever.
06:09How do we break that down to those people to make it real for them?
06:14Like, what is economic mobility?
06:16What does that look like, and how can they work with your program to be able to do that?
06:21Well, economic mobility for us means livable wage.
06:23Like, we reject the notion that we should be working for less than our value.
06:27And so we believe in re-skilling and up-skilling, putting ourselves in position, right, that's the first job that
06:33we have to do.
06:34And then demanding a seat at the table, right, in corporations all over the country.
06:39Larry Miller, our founder, just became chairman, co-chair of the Business Roundtable Second Chance Business Coalition, along with Jamie
06:46Dimon to work with some of the Fortune 100 companies all across the country to be able to help create
06:50pathways for folks.
06:52So the first thing I would say for all of us who have or know somebody who's been just as
06:56impacted is make sure that we do the work necessary to put ourselves in position to compete.
07:00Because you can't walk from the prison environment into a $100,000 a year corporate job if you haven't done
07:06the things necessary to compete for that job.
07:09We don't ask companies to lower the bar for talent.
07:12We ask them to lower the barrier, right?
07:14And so we have to do our part.
07:15Once we do our part, folks can call our organizations, and there's a lot of other organizations out there, like
07:20the Second Chance Business Coalition, which is made up of 50 of the top 100 companies in America, to find
07:26out where those opportunities exist, and we can help pathway them there.
07:33Jepetha, insurance is not always seen as a path to real wealth.
07:37So for the women here looking to advance, what is the hidden opportunity in your industry that they need to
07:44know about?
07:45Thanks for the question.
07:47So insurance is not just a policy you sell.
07:50It's an opportunity, and it's one of the last industries where you have the opportunity to advance and build real
07:57wealth without a technical degree, venture capitalist, or an abundance of connections.
08:03You can go from commission checks as an agent to owning your own insurance agency in a few years, and
08:09that's not possible in many industries.
08:11Moreover, there is a massive infrastructure in the insurance industry, from agents and insurtech to risk management, and these opportunities
08:24have been afforded and built wealth quietly to those who have gotten in.
08:28NAYA exists to allow those opportunities to the masses and to black people who have not always known about these
08:36opportunities.
08:37So making sure there's sponsorship and access, because access is a real problem in our mobility.
08:44So then, let's say if I'm one of the 300,000 black women that has just been laid off in
08:52the workplace, and I am looking to see if insurance is going to be a viable option, what if I
08:58don't have the money to pay for the certifications?
09:01What if I don't have the money to get the licensings?
09:04Is there, we talk about access, everybody can have access, but that doesn't mean that you truly have access to
09:11it.
09:11So does your organization help those that are qualified to do it, that want to do some type of change,
09:18but may not have the financial structure to be able to pay for the licenses and things that it takes
09:24to actually be in insurance?
09:25Absolutely. Well, one misconception is that every opportunity needs a license. Every opportunity does not need a license.
09:32If you would love to visit NAYA.org, that's N-A-A-I-A.org, we have a job board
09:38with thousands of current opportunities.
09:40You can create alerts. They range everything. Insurance touches every aspect of our lives.
09:47So there's marketing, there's engineering, actuarials, you name it, and it is there.
09:52So there are lots of opportunities, and there are often employers that are looking to grow their talent.
09:58So you get in in one area, and then there are opportunities to get those licensing and things underwritten as
10:04well, so not necessarily out of pocket.
10:06So think of insurance more in the big umbrella picture as opposed to our notion of what we've thought of
10:13insurance throughout the years.
10:15That's the same thing that I tell folks who, they say, well, I want to go into tech, and they
10:21think that the only way that they can go into tech is to work for a tech company.
10:25Every industry, every industry has some form or fashion of tech where you can actually put those transferable skills there
10:32to learn, so it's not just one path.
10:34So I really, really like that.
10:36Dr. J, many people feel very much so intimidated by investing, and as you know, I don't know why we
10:43have this in our community.
10:45There is a big push of venture capital, and I need to raise capital, and I need to talk to
10:51an investor, right?
10:52But what's the biggest barrier that you see from women being investors themselves, and how can we start building wealth
11:00today when we leave from Essence on Monday morning?
11:04The first thing I want to say is that our fear of investing, I think, partially comes in the fact
11:10that every time we build, they come and they take it back.
11:14We build these homes when we think about Black Wall Street, when we think about Freedman's Bank.
11:19Imagine a situation where the first official big black bank that we had, Freedman's Bank, we found out is basically
11:26was something pulling money from us.
11:29And, you know, we had one of our biggest thought leaders, Frederick Douglass, come and tell us, hey, I went
11:34and investigated, and your money's basically about to be gone.
11:37And the government comes and goes, well, you've all lost your money, but we're going to just shut down this
11:41bank.
11:42This is a history that America has, right?
11:44One of the companies I invested in is called Redemption Bank.
11:47It's one of the first black banks in America that has in-house SBA lending, right?
11:50That journey, though, even prior to that investment and then becoming a real bank, was us seeing another person say,
11:56we have a black bank.
11:58I won't name the company name.
11:59And only for it to find out it wasn't a bank.
12:01It was only a fintech platform.
12:03And so many people had galvanized and invested in this project only to know that it wasn't.
12:08So doing our own research, D-Y-O-R, do your own research is very important.
12:13Understanding the terminologies, going to the SEC website.
12:16These are all public information that we have.
12:19And having the proper structure and contracts.
12:22We can cooperatively invest with each other, right?
12:25For instance, when I first started as an angel investor, I would only use my money to invest because I
12:30was like, I don't want to manage other people's money and do this.
12:32Because I'm a former investment banker.
12:34So I knew what it looked like to manage wealth.
12:36I managed $3.8 billion.
12:37But if we're going to talk about why we are hesitant, it's because we've continuously seen family members and friends
12:44borrow, never return it.
12:46We've seen the freedmen banks of the world that we were all putting our money in this black bank.
12:51And thousands of black wealthy people who were our founders and creators, their money was gone overnight.
12:57And when you take our money, it's not as easy as just like, oh, here's an FDIC to give you
13:02your money back.
13:03And even then, they only insure it up to a certain amount, right?
13:06And so the good thing about where we are now as a country, as a people, is that we have
13:12options.
13:13We could diversify into other countries.
13:15If we don't like the tax structure, we could go to a different state and figure out the proper legal
13:21loopholes to make sure that you're not overly paying.
13:24We also have contracts now that we can create amongst each other to protect ourselves.
13:28But we don't need, the best part is we don't need $1,000 or $10,000 or $1,000,000
13:32to start.
13:33You literally could start with $5, right?
13:36You can literally right now, if you like crypto, not to say to buy it or not, do your homework,
13:41but you can literally take $5 and buy a partial share of a stock, a partial share of a crypto.
13:47You know, if you're like, you know what, I want something that's going to give me dividends because I don't
13:50like selling stocks.
13:51You can buy a particular project and have a dividend that's giving you a dollar every year or every month,
13:57depending what company you're investing in.
13:59You know, if you look at investing as simple as this, start with the companies that you pay attention to
14:05the most.
14:05If there's a supermarket you go to all the time, you're going to notice that that supermarket starts to shut
14:10down.
14:10If there used to be 10 stopping shops in your neighborhood, now there's only two, and you're an investor in
14:15that company, maybe it's a REIT, real estate investment trust, look those up.
14:19Now, they might be a company that you now have to be like, let me think twice because they're losing
14:25a lot of traction.
14:26If you have a phone company that you use all the time, I remember back in the day, I love
14:29the BlackBerry world.
14:30That was my favorite phone because I used to go international, and it worked everywhere.
14:34So as an investor, I invested in BlackBerry.
14:36But when I noticed that any time it had an issue, I was not able to get it fixed, and
14:42then they started trying to transfer it to other phones,
14:44and I know that a lot of my friends were complaining, and they were like, oh, I'm going to go
14:47over to Apple.
14:48I said, well, they're going to probably lose a lot of investors.
14:51Maybe it's time to pull my money out.
14:53It's really that simple.
14:54So my tip to you by Monday, if you're going to go invest in your first thing is start with
14:58the things that you see or use every day.
15:00Look at your lip gloss, your lipstick, the hair balm, your beard balm.
15:05Look to see if it's publicly traded.
15:07If it's only $20 per share, maybe that's where you should start.
15:11You know?
15:11Also, I want you to think about do you have the proper structure?
15:15Do you understand what you're investing in?
15:17Your structure is everything.
15:19It's what's going to make you either pay 33% in taxes, 10% to 12% or less in
15:23taxes.
15:24So things of that nature are so important, and that's where you start.
15:28It's not the big dog.
15:29It's start with the little baby steps, and you can start with as little as $5.
15:33So I want to break that down just a little bit.
15:36I just want to double click because for some folks, that is like pie in the sky.
15:40Like you just spoke some Korean, and they don't know what you just said.
15:45They don't understand any of that.
15:47But I'm talking about my sister girl.
15:52She is doing products in her kitchen.
15:56She's selling on Etsy.
15:58She's trying to go to TikTok, and I want to be able to support her.
16:04How do I support her?
16:07She's not at the point where she's like, I'm raising venture, but she might be doing crowdfunding.
16:15So break it down for me that simple of how I can get in at the small basis of what
16:24investing is because investing looks different to different people, right?
16:28And so if they don't understand all of the high things that we do, break it down to them of
16:34how I can get involved to start putting my $5 or $10 until my girlfriend who's in the kitchen that's
16:40cooking her products, and it's catching on.
16:43So the two things I will say, it's an A and B.
16:46On the side of your girlfriend who's a creator who's making the product in her kitchen, make sure you have
16:51all your ducks in a row.
16:52Do you have it incorporated to some degree, LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp?
16:56Do you have your business EIN?
16:58Are you structured properly?
16:59Have you made sure if there's any approvals, whether it's FDA, et cetera, that you need, it has been completed,
17:04so that when your friend wants to invest in you, you can understand, A, how much money do you make
17:10for your product?
17:11What is your bottom line cost, including, you know, does it take you $10 to make this product?
17:17Then that means, what is your markup?
17:19Are you selling it for $20, $30 and making sure you're 2 or triple X-ing your money?
17:23So if you as a creator don't have that information, it's hard for someone to invest in you.
17:27And then on the other side of that, we can look at something like you as an investor who's a
17:32friend,
17:33and you can go, well, do you have a business plan?
17:36And she might have a business plan that says, hey, sis, I have these containers that right now cost me
17:41$5,
17:41but with an investment of $50,000 or $1,000, maybe I'll be able to buy bulk and lower my
17:48cost for those containers down to, like, $1, right?
17:52And so when she as a boss is thinking that way, now you as a friend can go, I have
17:57$1,000.
17:58Or you can have 10 friends each put $100 to get you to that point where you can cooperatively invest
18:03in this company.
18:04But she has to be able to tell you, if you invest $1,000, I'll be able to give you
18:1030% back on your money in 16 months
18:13because now you're allowing me to lower my overhead costs and show you some Etsy receipts showing that, hey, monthly
18:22I make this much money.
18:23Some of the people that I've helped to make millionaires or multimillionaires, it was by opening my own bank account
18:29and showing them how much I made and how I did that process so that they could be like, I
18:33trust you now to give you this much money to invest for me or with me.
18:38And so, or to know that you're going to tell me what company to go into.
18:41So half of that battle is transparency on the creative side to show, I know I can make you 30
18:47% because I make this percentage every month
18:50and this is my overhead cost.
18:52And then you as an investor making sure you have the proper contracts in place to make sure you're protecting.
18:56And sometimes it's just putting a little money in escrow and bleeding it out.
19:00Like on a real estate side, when I invest in my friend's real estate projects, I might put the money
19:04in escrow
19:05and as certain parts of the project are completed, then that money is released.
19:09That way I can know that the job is getting done at a certain speed.
19:12I hope that helps.
19:13Yeah.
19:14And also, too, YouTube University is still your friend.
19:18Still your friend.
19:19And also, there is a wonderful organization called Pipeline Angels.
19:23And they also do training on angel investing, what that looks like, how you go in with other folks,
19:31as she was explaining as well, to actually invest in a company.
19:34So those are also options for you as well.
19:37Wait, I'm sorry.
19:37One more thing.
19:38And if you're angel investing, my favorite thing is the reason I've picked a lot of successful companies,
19:42half of the battle is the founder.
19:44So if you don't like the founder of the company and they can't pitch you in 30 to 60 seconds
19:48or less,
19:49it's going to be hard for them to go into the world and pitch.
19:51And the second thing is making sure the founder's numbers make sense.
19:54If their numbers do not make sense to you, then be careful on how you invest.
20:00Absolutely.
20:02So this is a call to action.
20:04And I'm all about what can they do when they leave here tomorrow from excellence to be able to put
20:11into play.
20:11So this is rapid questions from you guys, and I want you to have that in that mind frame of
20:17how they can do that right now.
20:18So, Shawna, we want to leave a call to action.
20:22What is one thing that everyone here can do differently starting Monday to support this work?
20:29I think we have to believe that economic mobility starts with ourselves and that we are our first investors.
20:37So it's really important for us to not necessarily look around for foundations or corporations to spearhead our initial ideas.
20:46We actually have to say, you know what, as we were just talking about, we actually can give $1,000
20:51or $100 or $50
20:52because when we think about long-term investment, we are going to have to create our own investors in our
20:59own community.
21:00We are not going to be able to go look at the next philanthropy or a foundation who's going to
21:05give $10 million, $100 million.
21:06It's not going to happen.
21:08So at CamelBag, we're literally working with our founders to say, you're a founder now?
21:13You're going to be an investor very soon, a philanthropist very soon.
21:16So how do we start shifting your mindset to believe that you are that?
21:20And we have to remember ourselves, as black people in particular, that we have done this forever.
21:24We would send small dollars and envelopes to our community members.
21:27We were the beginning of the NAACP.
21:30All those things we did ourselves, and we have to take that back and have that mentality on Monday
21:35so that we will ensure that our future is in our own hands.
21:41Key thing, key thing she just said, founder today, investor tomorrow.
21:47Ken, we are seeing a lot of political noise right now, a whole lot of foolery.
21:52What is one thing that we must refuse to stop building, regardless of the pushback?
21:59Yeah.
22:00I think first, if you're just as impacted or you know someone who's just as impacted, the first thing I
22:05would encourage everybody to do is take agency.
22:07My agency doesn't belong with this administration.
22:10My agency doesn't belong to politics.
22:12My agency belongs with me.
22:13And oftentimes, we look at some of the structural challenges that exist for us and have existed for us, and
22:20we lean on those, and we give agency to those.
22:23The agency starts with us, number one.
22:26If you're a business owner or you're a founder or you're an investor, invest in people.
22:32There's this amazing thing that happens.
22:33When you pour into people, you get great results.
22:36When you push people to the margins, there's consequences to that.
22:39There's outgrowths to that, right?
22:40And so we're a firm believer in investing in people, and I work every single day, and there's hundreds of
22:45other people that are working every single day to make sure that every single person in this country, whether they're
22:50at JPMorgan Chase or whether they're at the corner store in local neighborhood, to make sure that we're presenting folks
22:56with opportunity, because that's the pathway to stronger communities, and it's the pathway to safer communities.
23:01Jepetha, for leaders and funders in this room, what is one immediate action that they should take right now to
23:09turn workforce investment into a real pathway for our community?
23:15Certainly.
23:16We've talked a lot about entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship is definitely a path to mobility for many, but it's not for
23:23everyone.
23:23There is a corporate path for some to success, and so I would say one thing to focus on is
23:30stop funding the pipeline programs that stop at the interview.
23:35Fund programs that worry about the sponsorship gap.
23:39Make sure there is diversity hiring that includes an advancement plan and cultivates an environment where we're not just hiring
23:48entry-level people.
23:49We are elevating them, so we see more people in the C-suite.
23:53Those things, that is where you can put your money behind that, funding those programs that are fully focused.
24:00So take a look at not just who's asking for that money.
24:02Where are they stopping with that money?
24:04Yes, they have a good number of hires.
24:06That's great, but what's their retention rate?
24:10What's their advancement rate?
24:11What is their mid-level leadership, and what does their pipeline for leadership look like?
24:17Mm-hmm.
24:18Mm-hmm.
24:19And for Dr. J, looking ahead at the next era of economic growth, what is one specific thing that black
24:27communities must own and scale to truly control our future?
24:33We need to own our own IPs.
24:36Own your identity.
24:37When we talk about intellectual property, NILs, right now we're watching even in sports, our young youth are starting to
24:45be able to brand and package your name, image, likeness.
24:48That's what NIL stands for.
24:50But everyone in this room, stop looking at yourself as an individual and look at yourself as a brand.
24:55You are the CEO of your own life.
24:57That means you're structuring yourself.
24:59Just in a real company, you need a CFO, the chief financial officer.
25:02You need a chief operating officer.
25:04And you know in your personal lives, we need the finance person.
25:08We need the lawyer.
25:09We need the person who's going to tell us, girl, watch yourself.
25:12Man, let me tell you, you're going, you know, be careful.
25:16You need to brand yourself.
25:17You need to have your LLC, whatever that might look like.
25:19But you need to be able to protect the brand that you're creating but create one.
25:23And understand that if you don't have a copyright, you don't have a trademark, you're creating something, even if it's
25:28your own personal self.
25:30And you're setting yourself for failure because somebody can come and pull the rug from underneath you.
25:34And we live in a world where so many people on social media are making millions of dollars.
25:38But the biggest thing that people don't realize is that a lot of the people have branded themselves.
25:42And if you brand yourself without protecting yourself, especially in this AI world that we have right now, you're setting
25:49yourself up for failure.
25:50So that would be the biggest thing I would tell somebody right now is making sure that you're protecting your
25:54brand and your creative thoughts and your process.
25:57Because even if you have a company and it's a simplicity of if you want to be able to go
26:01to sleep and have your company make money for you while you're sleeping,
26:04or God forbid if you get in a car accident tomorrow and there needs to be someone else to run
26:09your business,
26:10have you created a blueprint so that somebody else can run it for you and you can still be making
26:15money even in a coma, God forbid.
26:17We all have to think about the worst case scenario, including if you're not here for your children and how
26:23you can proceed.
26:24Got you.
26:25Well, I thank you guys so very much today for being candid for sure.
26:29So a couple of things before we get out of here.
26:33One, we're going to stop waiting for a seat at the table that was not designed for you.
26:39Let's just stop doing that.
26:41Use what you heard today, including these new Pell Grant Pathways.
26:45Again, it just became public July 1, so please go look into that.
26:50And that is for those if maybe you started going to college and you didn't finish, you can use it.
26:56Maybe one of your children or your nephews or your uncles or aunties, they didn't go to school.
27:02You can use this grant to be able to get a six-figure job, like, tomorrow.
27:08Well, like six to eight weeks.
27:09But still, you're not having to wait to go through a four-year college.
27:14And lastly, just start building your own.
27:18Like, let's make these opportunities the standard and not the exception.
27:22And last but not least, please continue to build the block.
27:27Your block is your community.
27:29Your block is your sister girlfriends.
27:32Your block is your girlfriends that you go on vacation to that guide you and lead you and lift you
27:37up as we are doing all the things inside of our communities.
27:41But thank you so very much for having us this morning.
27:44And we hope you guys continue to have an excellent, phenomenal Essence Festival.
28:01Thank you so much for having us.
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