Black entrepreneurs share childcare solutions at city council meeting
The Minneapolis City Council heard from two Black business owners during Black Business Week about how they're tackling affordable childcare while creating opportunities for minority entrepreneurs in the city.
Anthony Newbie and Janine Hill presented their businesses to the council on Wednesday, highlighting a critical gap in Minneapolis: affordable childcare for working families. Newbie, a mother of four, started her company after struggling to find childcare she could afford. "One of the biggest obstacles that I experienced as a mother of four is finding child care that was affordable for my younger children," she told council members.
Newbie's business, called "The Office where parents work and kids explore," combines childcare with entrepreneurship support. The company aims to create networking and community engagement opportunities specifically for Black and Brown business owners. "The company was started as a project to do my part to make sure that black and brown people had an opportunity to participate," Newbie explained.
What makes Newbie's approach notable is her bootstrapping strategy. "I self-funded majority of this business," she said, demonstrating the kind of independent entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes many minority-owned startups. Hill's business, Cultivated, appears to operate with a similar mission of supporting underrepresented communities.
The presentations during Black Business Week underscore a persistent challenge in Minneapolis: childcare affordability remains out of reach for many families, particularly those in communities of color. By combining childcare services with business support, these entrepreneurs are attempting to address two interconnected problems at once—helping parents access affordable care while building wealth and opportunity within their communities.
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One of the biggest obstacles that I experienced as a mother of four is finding child care that was affordable for my younger children.
The company was started as a project to do my part to make sure that black and brown people had an opportunity to participate.
I self-funded majority of this business.
Source document
[0:00] Hi, my name is Janine Hill.
[0:01] My name is Anthony Newbie and I'm the
[0:04] owner of Cultivated.
[0:05] I'm the owner of The Office where
[0:07] parents work and kids explore.
[0:11] One of the biggest obstacles that I
[0:13] experienced as a mother of four is
[0:15] finding child care that was affordable
[0:18] for my younger children.
[0:20] The company was started as a project to
[0:23] do my part to make sure that black and
[0:25] brown people had an opportunity to
[0:27] participate. The office comes around
[0:29] with networking opportunities and events
[0:32] and plugging into the community
[0:34] stakeholders. I self-funded majority of
[0:37] this business. You can do it, too.
[0:39] We're just not going to stop. We're
[0:42] going to build the world that we want to
[0:43] build.
[0:44] [Music]
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