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Temple Beth El Blog

Supporting the South Side of Madison: Black Business Hub and Allied Wellness Center

03/01/2022 03:42:03 PM

Mar1

At our annual Shabbat honoring the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we welcomed Dr. Ruben Anthony, CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, who offered a presentation on an exciting new project: the Black Business Hub and Black Business Accelerator, part of the exciting renaissance happening in South Madison. 

South Madison has long been home to our communities of color—African American, Latino, Hmong—and is a cherished place of community and support, but sadly, as a city, we have also long underinvested in this area. That story is now changing, thanks to the leadership of people like Dr. Ruben Anthony, Kaleem Caire (One City Schools), Dr. Alex Gee (Nehemiah, Fountain of Life Church, and the new Cultural Center), Dr. Jack Daniels (Madison College), and others. You can learn more about the South Madison renaissance here. 

The Black Business Hub will be devoted to incubating, accelerating, and networking Black and other entrepreneurs of color. The Hub will be a four-story, 76,000 square foot building located on Park Street near the Urban League and Goodman Library. It will house retail and other businesses ranging from start-ups to established businesses, including food, personal care, financial services, entertainment, technology, co-working space, and a rentable commercial kitchen. The Black Business Hub Accelerator will offer entrepreneurial supports including loans, grants, technical assistance, networking, and more.

If you’d like to hear Dr. Anthony’s presentation, go to the TBE YouTube page, where the presentation begins at 1:05:30. You can also read more here. 

As part of our observation of this weekend, Temple Beth El also sponsored a collection for Nehemiah's Allied Wellness Center's Essentials Pantry, providing residents of the Allied neighborhood with critically needed health and hygiene products, such as toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant, razors, diapers, tampons, and shampoo, as well as bus tickets, gas cards, and grocery cards. 

This year Congregation Shaarei Shamayim joined in, and together our members donated over $2,200 in January! Nehemiah and the Allied Wellness Center are incredibly grateful to our community for the support, which, especially during these difficult economic times and COVID pandemic, have proven to be absolutely essential to the Allied neighbors. This drive is becoming a regular event, twice a year at MLK weekend and Juneteenth.

April 19, 2024 11 Nisan 5784