Metro is a proud sponsor of the 2010 Minority Enterprise Development Week, a series of events, trainings and activities designed to celebrate and recognize outstanding minority-owned businesses in Oregon and SW Washington. MED Week starts with a kickoff luncheon Sept. 23rd at the Oregon Convention Center and will culminate in an awards luncheon on Oct. 6 featuring keynote speaker Allen Alley.
This year’s MED Week events will include trainings on how to better incorporate minority and women-owned small businesses into contracting policies and tips for how minority enterprises can access capital. The awards luncheon on Oct. 6 will honor local businesses from all fields including construction, professional services and manufacturing for their efforts to contract with diverse suppliers and implement diversity strategies in their workplaces.
MED Week is organized by the Business Development Institute which leads public and private organizations in achieving a regionally diverse and sustainable business. Angela Watkins, chair of BDI, is also a procurement analyst and the MWESB coordinator for Metro.
Metro is committed to encouraging greater investment in minority and women-owned small businesses throughout the region. To ensure it fulfills its goals of promoting diversity, Metro is currently in the process of updating its Diversity Action Plan which will identify a number of policy changes, educational opportunities and other methods to increase diversity and cultural competence throughout Metro’s operations and better reflect the diversity of the community it serves. Additionally, Metro recently announced its partnership with the City of Portland, TriMet, the Urban League and other regional partners to pursue an US Department of Housing and Urban Development Sustainable Communities Grant which would allow the region to better provide housing and transportation options to historically underserved communities.