Johns Hopkins Supports Local Business Owners
On Wednesday, May 24, 2017, Johns Hopkins University and Health System, under their HopkinsLocal initiative, BLocal BUILD College, held Commencement Services for their second cohort of seventeen very fortunate minority and women-owned companies from around the Baltimore City region.
The BLocal BUILD partners have developed the BLocal BUILD College, a thirteen session program that will provide construction and business training for small, local, minority-owned, woman-owned and disadvantaged Baltimore-based businesses in the design and construction industries. BLocal BUILD College is intended to be a standing offering on a year-to-year basis that will help the participants develop key competencies and relationships necessary to drive future growth, said Ricky D. Venters Jr., Johns Hopkins' University Economic Inclusion Program Manager for workforce development.
The second cohort class is made up of sixteen MDOT certified and thirteen Baltimore City certified companies, ranging from 2-70 employees with 4-70 years in business, representing industries from cleaning/janitorial, construction, manufacturing, and design. Twelve of the companies have offices in Baltimore City.
The commencement speakers were Sally MacConnell, SVP Facilities JHHS and VP Facilities The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Steve Woerner, President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) at BGE.
“BLocal BUILD College is an intentional and impactful collaboration spearheaded by Johns Hopkins and supported by The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Turner Construction Company, Forrester Construction, Mahogany, Inc., a diverse supplier, among others to quickly prepare companies to do business with Johns Hopkins and the greater business communities”, said Wayne R. Frazier, Sr., President of Md. Washington Minority Companies Association. “It’s a big thing when a world-renowned health care and education leader stakes its reputation on change for the better. Go Hopkins!”
