{"id":293143,"date":"2026-09-24T18:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T18:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T18:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T18:01:18","slug":"why-investing-in-diverse-erie-means-investing-in-our-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293143\/","title":{"rendered":"Why investing in Diverse Erie means investing in our future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Diverse Erie <\/a>was founded in 2021 in response<\/a> to the inequities<\/a> exposed by the death of George Floyd, our mission has been simple: support diversity in all its forms across Erie County, so that when one of us wins, we all win.<\/p>\n

In the years since, we have led trainings and seminars to share knowledge and best practices with our fellow community members, and we have made direct investments in the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) business community across our region. Those investments have ranged from large Generational Impact Initiatives<\/a> to two rounds of Small Business Mini-Grants<\/a>, each designed to help a business reach its next level of growth, or simply continue serving the customers who depend on it. We believe, and the evidence bears out, that Erie County’s economy cannot thrive without a diverse business sector at its center.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/p>\n

Gary Lee<\/p>\n

This year, we took a closer look at what that work has actually produced. Diverse Erie’s investments have generated $7.6 million in economic impact across our region. Diverse Erie has supported, sustained, or created 149 jobs, and returned $1.63 in economic impact for every $1 invested, reaching 95 Erie County small businesses and organizations in the process. We have also maintained three consecutive years of clean financial audits, with no material weaknesses or deficiencies. Numbers like these do not happen by chance. They happen because businesses that might otherwise have struggled, or closed altogether, had a partner willing to invest<\/a> in their next chapter.<\/p>\n

More: How Diverse Erie expands opportunity, strengthens economy | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

For the past several weeks, our “Meet the Businesses”<\/a> campaign has introduced Erie County to many of the entrepreneurs and organizations behind those numbers. It is one thing to talk about economic impact in the abstract. It is another to see the people building it, one business, one hire, one investment at a time.<\/p>\n

\"Diverse<\/p>\n

Diverse Erie awarded a combined $650,000 to four Erie-area organizations on Nov. 21, 2025. Pictured are members of the commission and other officials presenting a check to the Birthroot Community Doula Alliance.<\/p>\n

That work brings us to this moment. Diverse Erie recently launched a new campaign and mission video called “One Erie. Many Stories.” The campaign does two things: It highlights the wins we have built together over the past several years, and it makes the case for why continued investment matters, especially now, when economic uncertainty touches every corner of our region.<\/p>\n

Stability \u2014 for a business community and for a civic community alike \u2014 comes from one place: making sure everyone has the same opportunity to succeed. That is the work of Diverse Erie. We identify businesses that, for one reason or another, have not had access to the same opportunities as others, and we invest in closing that gap.<\/p>\n

These investments have helped businesses open additional locations, maintain and upgrade their businesses, reach new customers, and provide more services across Erie County. For some of our partners, that same investment has helped make healthcare, education, and homeownership more accessible to the BIPOC community here at home. None of this happens through training or encouragement alone. It happens because real dollars reached real businesses at the moment they needed them most, and because these businesses were trusted to know what their own next step should be. Each outcome represents a business, a family, or a neighborhood that is stronger today than it was before, and a local economy that is stronger because of it.<\/p>\n

Going forward, we plan to build on this progress. Erie County holds many different voices, many different perspectives, and many different histories, and “One Erie. Many Stories.” is built around that truth. But at the end of the day, we are one community. One Erie. That has always been the point.<\/p>\n

This progress has a name: the Diverse Erie Economic Mobility and Generational Wealth Initiative, a proposed $2 million investment for 2027 built around three pathways:<\/p>\n

Earn: helping residents access paid training and family-sustaining careers.<\/p>\n

Grow: helping BIPOC-owned businesses expand and compete for contracts.<\/p>\n

Own: helping families build wealth through homeownership.<\/p>\n

As Erie County looks ahead to its priorities for the year to come, we hope the case for this work speaks for itself. We are proud of what these partnerships have built so far, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside Erie County and alongside every business and family who believes, as we do, that when one of us wins, we all win.<\/p>\n

Gary Lee is the chief administrative officer of Diverse Erie.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Why investing in Diverse Erie means investing in our future | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Diverse Erie was founded in 2021 in response to the inequities exposed by the death of George…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[121445,22686,136,142,138,137,18338],"class_list":["post-293143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-business-sector","tag-economic-impact","tag-erie","tag-erie-county","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-investments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}