SOURCE name change
A local Near West resource for aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses is undergoing significant change in 2021. Seeded in 2016 by IUPUI through its Office of Community Engagement, SOURCE has served as a critical component to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) facilitated by the Great Places neighborhood strategy and Quality of Life Plan. IUPUI set out to create, reinforce, and enhance an environment where local individuals can learn, start, and grow their business.
SOURCE, IUPUI, and sponsors celebrated achieving a major milestone this past December… where since its inception, SOURCE has served over 1200 individuals, who gained and supplemented their business knowledge and expertise through training and workshops, business coaching, program resource navigation, application assistance, and valuable peer-to-peer networking opportunities.
“Ensuring local access to entrepreneurial resources in the neighborhoods of Haughville, Hawthorne, Stringtown and We Care, and later expanding to all Indianapolis neighborhoods, SOURCE local presence was critical to achieving the goals and objectives laid out in the Great Place Neighborhoods comprehensive strategy”, explained Steve Thrash, Director of SOURCE since mid-2019. “Area entrepreneurs and support organizations are grateful to IUPUI for affording this opportunity to launch, and now successfully graduate, this valuable community resource to become the locally owned and self-directed resource as was intended from the beginning."
SOURCE continues to serve numerous aspiring and existing entrepreneurs and small businesses, of which over 70% represent the black and Latinx communities, and over 62% are women. Program design and delivery are developed and managed both directly by SOURCE staff, and through long-standing partnerships with the INDY Chamber of Commerce, Business Ownership Initiative (BOI), the Westside Community Development Corporation, the US Small Business Administration, and others.
During 2021, SOURCE is undergoing expansion and enhancement of its’ local Board leadership (see related article)
2021 plans are also underway to increase local outreach, enhance services and networking among the Hispanic community, and bring new innovative programming in now virtual format, broadcast via Facebook live-stream. New and enhanced collaborations are being built, and announcements will follow, including joint programming with the INDY Black Chamber, 16Tech, PITCH Feast, BOI, and many others.