Answering the Call: Implementing the Promise of Equity in Procurement

The second cohort on Inclusive Procurement invited ten cities--Boston, Cleveland, El Paso, Houston, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and South Bend--to leverage their spending power and procurement systems to create greater and more equitable economic opportunity for Black and Brown-owned businesses. The cities worked to implement strategies that were identified in the first City Accelerator Inclusive Procurement cohort, as captured in Culture, Collaboration and Capital: Leveraging Procurement for Economic Equity (released 2019).

This companion guide highlights stories of how the ten cities in the second Inclusive Cohort built on and implemented strategies to support businesses owned by people of color with being awarded more city contracts. Watch the final webinar in our Next City series Procurement & the Pandemic to hear stories of success and takeaways from the cohort cities of Nashville and Philadelphia, and cohort lead Atty. Rodney Strong.

The lessons learned during this cohort build on and add to the collective experiences of six years and 27 cities participating in City Accelerator.