Revised City of South Bend Disparity Study Report

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CCS of South Bend Disparity Study 2020 I was told by someone in the Parks department that, for small businesses, the insurance requirements may be a hurdle for myself, my company. It would be helpful if they put on little mini training videos. One suggestion to address these issues was for the City to conduct more outreach to M/WBEs and small local firms. I have not seen the City of South Bend do any of the outreach things that some of the other places do. [Conduct] a meet -and -greet, and say, 'This is how we're moving forward.' And that businesses are here and now and would like to do business with you and we want to help them establish relationships. Suggestion [for South Bend]: the Indianapolis Office of Minority Suppliers has a forum every quarter, and so, it's a networking event. And so, you can set up your booth, and they set up booths, and you get personal introductions there. And they might have a training there. Another recommendation was to provide support for minority and women entre- preneurs and implement capacity building measures for small firms. I don't think we have a lot of resources here for entrepreneurs. St. Mary's College has the SPARK program [the City should partner with]. B. Conclusion Consistent with other evidence reported in this study, anecdotal interview infor- mation suggests that minorities and women continue to suffer discriminatory bar- riers to full and fair access to South Bend, and private sector, contracts and subcontracts. While not definitive proof that the City should apply race- and gen- der -conscious measures to these impediments, M/WBEs' experiences are the type of evidence that, especially when considered alongside the study's statistical evi- dence, the courts have found to be probative of whether the City may use nar- rowly tailored M/WBE contract goals to address that discrimination. 0 2020 Colette Holt & Associates, All Rights Reserved. 47