NEW ORLEANS — JPMorgan Chase announced that New Orleans is one of six winning cities in its annual competition to “source innovative and sustainable ideas to advance equity in communities across the U.S.” A collaborative of twelve organizations will receive $5 million over three years to make child care a family-sustaining career. Led by nonprofit Beloved Community, the organizations will work together to foster Black and Latinx women-led child care businesses that “value Black and Latinx women as caregivers, entrepreneurs, employees and mothers,” said a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson. The project has been named NOLA C.A.R.E.S. (Creating Access Resources and Equity for Success).
“I am grateful and excited that the City of New Orleans has once again been selected to be a part of JPMorgan Chase’s AdvancingCities initiative,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell in a press release. “This bold, collaborative effort will aid not only in boosting our economy, but also reducing poverty and crime and building better futures for our children and our city. Overall, this partnership is a great example of how we are prioritizing high-quality early childhood education and care, especially for our underserved Black and Latinx communities.”
JPMorgan Chase said child care center owners in New Orleans lack access to capital to improve and expand their facilities — and the pandemic has exacerbated the problem. This program aims to increase access to capital, provide training opportunities for career advancement and develop a more equitable workforce in New Orleans, informed by the experiences of more than 800 Black and Latinx women.
“This investment from JPMorgan Chase is going to be catalytic for economic mobility of Black and Latinx women in our region,” said Rhonda Broussard, founder and CEO of Beloved Community. “We’re honored to partner with such committed and innovative leaders to provide comprehensive support that includes workforce development, entrepreneur capacity-building, community engaged research, and ultimately access to more quality child care options for all New Orleans families.”
This is the second consecutive year that a New Orleans proposal has won an AdvancingCities competition. In 2020, JPMorgan Chase awarded $5 million to a collaborative led by NOLA Business Alliance to provide career pathways for people of color in the blue-green infrastructure industry. This new commitment is part of JPMorgan Chase’s $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity and builds on the firm’s $500 million, five-year initiative to invest in solutions to drive equitable growth through community-based strategies.
