Honoring and congratulating Champions of the Week, the Black Squirrel real estate collective, for their efforts to expand the real estate business to more people of color through their "Philly Rise" real estate accelerator program.

WHEREAS, Black Americans make up less than 5 percent of real estate developers; and

WHEREAS, Intergenerational wealth has been historically denied to Black and brown communities, and Black Squirrel’s program is expressly dedicated to increasing Black and brown community wealth; and

WHEREAS, Black Squirrel uses a proprietary business assessment platform, BizScoreline, to analyze small to medium-sized businesses’ business strategy, technology, marketing, and financial stability; and

WHEREAS, Philly Rise provides “professional mentoring and coaching from an experienced real estate development team”; and

WHEREAS, Philly Rise provides black and brown developers with access to capital investment to expand their businesses; and

WHEREAS, The program provides 95 percent of funding from a mixture of partnerships with local investors, the federal government, and direct investment from Black Squirrel; and

WHEREAS, Philly Rise creates linkages between black and brown developers and investment firms, where previously those relationships have been heavily inaccessible or nonexistent; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby congratulate and honor the Champions of the Week, the Black Squirrel real estate collective for their efforts to expand the real estate business to more people of color through their “Philly Rise” real estate accelerator program.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That an engrossed copy be presented to the Black Squirrel collective, further evidencing the sincere admiration and respect of this legislative body.

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