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Houston

Texas

Community Lead

LaTanya Flix

Senior Vice President, DEI at Greater Houston Partnership

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Lead Community Organization

The Greater Houston Partnership

The Greater Houston Partnership was formed in 1989 and is the largest chamber of commerce in the Houston area. The organization works to make Houston one of the best places to live, work and build a business by attracting global companies to Houston, creating jobs and growing the region’s GDP. 

One Houston Together is the Partnership’s initiative to focus on addressing racial equity and make Houston “America’s most inclusive and open city.” The initiative completed its inaugural Houston Region Equity and Inclusion Organization Assessment–with 100+ participating companies and organizations –making Houston the first major metro to take data-driven approach to guide collective action of business community.

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Houston Community Lead

Headshot of LaTanya Flix, Senior Vice President, DE&I at Greater Houston Partnership.

LaTanya Flix

Senior Vice President, DEI at Greater Houston Partnership

LaTanya Flix is Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston region’s principal business organization. In this role, she serves as executive staff liaison to the Partnership’s board Racial Equity Committee, oversees internal DEI learning and development, and leads One Houston Together- the Partnership’s commitment to leverage the power of the business community to reduce inequities. 

Learn More About The Greater Houston Partnership

History of Houston, Texas

The city of Houston was founded in 1836. The city was nicknamed the Bayou City illustrating the importance of the waterways that helped make Houston a shipping and logistics hub in the nineteenth century. Houston’s economy driven by the energy, aeronautics, healthcare services and biomedical research. Today, Houston is considered one of the most ethnically and racially diverse cities in the United States. It has the largest number of African Americans west of the Mississippi River. While there is diversity, there is more work to be done in terms of inclusion to ensure racial progress in Houston. 

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Racial Inequities in Houston

Black people make up 17% of the population, but Black businesses only represent approximately 7% of businesses and approximately 3% of revenues
MBE Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity
To start or scale businesses, Black entrepreneurs often cite access to capital as one of their greatest challenges
Access to Capital (CDFI/MDI)
Black people are about 1.5 times less likely as white people to hold a college degree and Black households earn approximately 57% of what white households earn
Education/HBCU and Workforce Development
About 10% of all Houston area households are without internet access
Digital Access
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Racial Equity Priorities

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Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity

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Access to Capital (CDFIs/MDI)

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HBCU and Workforce Development

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Digital Access

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Community Snapshot

Explore the dashboard to view demographic stats and key racial equity metrics.

Success Stories for Houston

One Houston has stood up a Supplier Diversity Roundtable of 40+ leading organizations to drive MBE spend

Growing spending with minority business enterprises is one of two priority areas of One Houston Together. “We have one big goal: to help make Houston one of the most equitable and inclusive business communities in the country,” Flix said.

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If you are interested in partnering with Southern Communities Initiative or wish to volunteer your time, we invite you to explore the different ways you can engage.

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Southern Communities Initiative is a consortium of companies with a single mission: to advance racial parity in six Southern U.S. communities.

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Charlotte, North Carolina

Racial Equity Priorities

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Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity

Creating and Scaling Black-owned Businesses

Southern Communities Initiative focuses on increasing the number and value of MBEs in the region. Southern Communities Initiative specifically aims at raising the economic weight of Black-owned businesses from 2% to 6% of the aggregated value of all businesses in the region.  

Additionally, small businesses in primarily Black communities tend to have lower profit margins and concentrate in industries with less potential for growth.

Black entrepreneurs often face many barriers, including a lack of access to capital, technical assistance, procurement opportunities and more.

Creating and scaling a greater number of Black-owned businesses is crucial to generating employment opportunities for people of color and increasing wealth in the community and economy.

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OUR AMBITION

Offer In-Kind FTEs for Supplier Diversity:

Offer 2-5 FTEs to Charlotte Regional Business Alliance (CRBA) over 5 years to convene corporate partners, assess their MBE spend, develop pipeline to increase MBE spend to 5-10%+.

Offer Technical Assistance Expertise:

Partner with CRBA to advise/mentor ~200 MBEs on capital/loan access to help them scale from <$10M to $50M+.

Commit to Supplier Diversity:

Increase MBE spend to 5-10%+.

Estimated Impact (Of All Initiatives): 3X Increase in MBE Value and ~13K New Jobs, Boosting Black Community’s Net Worth by ~$2B+.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Racial Equity Priorities

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Digital Access

Increasing Access, Affordability and Adoption to Broadband

Digital access is vital for any community to thrive in today’s world. Southern Communities Initiative’s ambition is to increase access to high-speed internet and its affordability for underserved communities. Currently 10% of households in the Charlotte area are without Internet access.

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OUR AMBITION

Support Center for Digital Equity – $25M:

Secure $25M over 4 years for Center for Digital Equity’s longitudinal project on digital access to enhance health efficacy and agency in the health experience lifecycle.

Raise Community Awareness and Adoption of Emergency Broadband Benefit:

Increase door-to-door and community outreach in low-income neighborhoods to get households onto EBB to help connect ~35K unconnected households.

Drive Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Adoption:

Secure $1-3M (donations or in kind) to drive door to door and community outreach in low income focus zip codes to get ~12K households onto Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) subsidies in Charlotte.

Provide Digital Access and Technical Assistance for Charlotte Households:

Provide 20K laptops, internet subs and broadband for ~35K households + grant writing support and internet adoption centers.

Support Efforts to Increase Digital Access:

Secure $2.2M for ~4K routers, switches and internet backhaul connections for ~80 bldgs.

Estimated Impact (Of All Initiatives): ~35K Households Get Connected to High-Speed Internet to Unlock ~$700M in Economic Potential for Charlotte.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Racial Equity Priorities

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HBCU and Workforce Development

Increasing Bachelors Degrees and Reducing Student Debt

Increasing education quality and minority representation in top job positions can have a positive effect on communities. Southern Communities Initiative aims at increasing Black empowerment and representation in the workforce. In Charlotte, Southern Communities Initiative supports the Mayor’s plan to make of JCSU a top 10 university in the US. Southern Communities Initiative is also planning to help increase the percentage of Black Charlotteans owning college degrees to 59%, and improve the representation of Black/Brown in executive positions to 30%.

Many of those who do graduate from HBCUs, where students are 1.4 times more likely than non-HBCU students to take out student loans and borrow 20% more on average.

Studies have found that taking on student debt can negatively affect academic performance, graduation rates and long-term wealth accumulation.

That is why it is critical to address issues in both enrollment and student loan debt, thus allowing students and graduates to access high-paying job opportunities and build their wealth.

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OUR AMBITION

Fund Student Freedom Initiative Program:

$10M to HELPS program and support ~1.5K+ students per year at 3 HBCUs with emergency expenses – e.g., health.

Provide In-Kind Staff:

Offer 2-5 FTEs to Charlotte Regional Business Alliance over 5 years to track and help increase Black-/Brown-exec representation from 10% to 30%+.

Estimated Impact (Of All Initiatives): 2.5K+ Additional College Graduates and 2.5K Workers With High-Paying Wages to Drive ~$0.2B in Economic Growth.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Racial Equity Priorities

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Access to Capital (CDFIs/MDI)

Modernizing and Building Capacity for Local CDFIs & MDIs

In Charlotte, 40 percent of Black households are unbanked or underbanked.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDI) are often viewed as the backbone of community lending and offer favorable terms for low-to-moderate income communities.

However, in order to scale their operations and economic impact, corporations and foundations have a key role in addressing common challenges for CDFIs and MDIs:

  • Outdated systems and technology infrastructure 
  • A lack of talent and workforce development tools
  • Other barriers to enhancing their capacity


Ensuring access to capital for individuals and businesses can spur economic growth and set a strong foundation for wealth accumulation.

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OUR AMBITION

Fund Modernization and Capacity-Building and Provide In-Kind Subject Matter Experts:

$30M to help 4-5 CDFIs over 5 years