Rock Hall to hold event for minority contractors, small business owners

At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, organizers are getting ready for next Tuesday's June Jamboree, which is a unique event happening to better serve minority contractors and small business owners, and it comes just one day before Juneteenth.

“We’re being very intentional about being able to look within our communities and have a workforce that’s representative of the community that we are building within,” said Aria Johnson with AKA.

The event aims to combine resources, enhance contractor success and support small, minority, and women-owned businesses.

“It is wonderful time to be able to support our black community,” said Johnson.

Johnson, who works as the Chief Diversity Officer with The AKA Team, which is a construction management and waterproofing company, said this event is especially important for several reasons.

“Historically, we have a large lack in the success of black business owners, female business owners and small business owners as well throughout the Cleveland community and America as a whole,” said Johnson.

In a study released in November 2020 , Cuyahoga County found that “long-standing discrimination did exist” when they looked at the disparity between the number of available minority and women business enterprises and the number of those firms that have been awarded contracts from the County.

While these findings are from 2014, Johnson says there are still challenges within the industry.

“That disparity is definitely very prevalent, but as a community, we are making great strides to minimize that,” said Johnson.

These strides will help local entrepreneurs like Quinton Green, who’s the owner of several different businesses where he specializes in community development.

“ We acquire blighted properties, properties that have just been distressed in underserved communities and we go in and we revitalize those homes,” said Green.

Throughout the years, Green said the biggest challenge he’s experienced is a lack of knowledge.

But he said networking events like Tuesday’s June Jamboree are priceless.

“It means everything because again, knowing what to do and how to navigate, but also having the right people, who can mentor you, is the biggest thing,” said Green.

This event is even beneficial for the Rock Hall as Tim Offtermatt said the museum gets ready for its next construction project.

“Rock and Roll is the music of everybody, and we want our construction contractor community to be as inclusive as Rock and Roll music has been over the decades,” said Offtermatt, who is the Rock Hall Construction Project Executive

The June Jamboree Contractor Outreach Event is next Tuesday from 6-10 p.m. at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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