Taking initiative: With a successful first year in Fayetteville under their belt, The Tulsa Initiative looks toward future growth

By Stephanie Meador, posted Feb 29, 2024 on BizFayetteville.com

The Tulsa Initiative Gala and Pitch Competition, held Dec. 2, 2023, had
over 200 people in attendance - Photo provided by The Tulsa Initiative

With a mission to empower Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams, the Tulsa Initiative moved into their Fayetteville office located at 109 Hay St. in February of 2023. Now with a year of successful programming under their belt, the sky’s the limit for this Black-owned business.

“From early on, looking at what Fayetteville is doing around entrepreneurship, [and for] minority entrepreneurs, our expectation was that we would come here [and] that people here would be hungry to grow into entrepreneurship and take advantage of the resources, and I think our expectations were met. When we [got] here we were welcomed by a community that was ready to grow, ready to transform,” remarked Executive Director Qu’Derrick R. Covington.

Covington shared that the preexisting support for local entrepreneurs being provided by organizations in the area helped to make The Tulsa Initiative’s transition into the community even smoother. Fayetteville’s young people continue to prove eager to take advantage of these entrepreneurial opportunities.

“When you look at the appetite of this younger generation, of the demographic that we work with – 18 to 26 – that’s fired up around entrepreneurship, it simply exceeded, I think, what we had initially thought. So our experience here has been amazing,” stated Covington.

Some of the organization’s highlights in serving the Fayetteville community in 2023 include:

Served 1,200 people in total
Served 600+ marginalized high school students from Cumberland and Hoke County schools through The Fayetteville Youth Summit and The Keys to Success Male Mixer
More than 30 college-aged students showcased their business ideas at The Tulsa Initiative Pop-Up and Pitch Program
Awarded $7.5k in startup funds
Additionally, The Tulsa Initiative successfully engaged 18 young men in their flagship program, The Tulsa Leadership and Entrepreneurship Academy. This academy is a 13-week program for BIPOC individuals between the ages of 18 to 26. Each week a different speaker was brought in and those speakers this year included an executive vice president from Meta, the chief of staff of the technology division from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a number of local entrepreneurs here in the city of Fayetteville.
Through their partnership with AWS, Tulsa Leadership and Entrepreneurship Academy participants were given the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. to AWS’s office to meet with their innovation staff.
“It’s been super beneficial to get our young men from Fayetteville that attention on a global scale with a major tech company to help them grow their business,” remarked Covington.
Now going into 2024 full steam ahead, Covington shared some of The Tulsa Initiative's plans for growing their programming and reaching even more people.
“Going into 2024 we wanted to make sure that we had some new initiatives that we really identify with… and so part of that was the Tulsa Initiative Endowment with Cumberland Community Foundation. And that was important because one, we wanted to make sure that we're positioning the organization for long-term sustainability and success, and we wanted to have an opportunity for community members to really support the work that we are doing through the foundation through an endowment,” explained Covington.
With the new year comes new partnerships. Covington shared that something he and his team are super excited about is a new collaboration with the Cumberland County Diversion Court program.
“So young men who may have gotten in trouble with the law more recently, or had a run in at school, through this new partnership they will have the opportunity to come through our program. And by coming through our program they will not have to face charges in the criminal justice arena. So we’re super excited about this new partnership with Cumberland County Diversion Court in working with these young men, and we’re looking to roll that out while marrying it with our Tulsa Leadership and Entrepreneurship Academy to give these young men [the] opportunity to be around some like-minded entrepreneurs and help them along their journey,” Covington explained.
The Tulsa Initiative also recently partnered with Methodist University’s office of Diversity & Inclusion to do programming, with some of their BIPOC students around entrepreneurship.
Some of the organization's successful programs from the previous year will be returning as well.
The Fayetteville Youth Summit is slated to be held on April 17 in partnership with Cumberland County Schools.
Covington emphasized that the goal for 2024 is to continue scaling the services that they offer and to continue making an impact.
“When you look at the fact that we engaged over 600 youth through our Fayetteville Youth Summit and Keys to Success Male Summit, it’s like, ‘Hey we engaged 600, how can we get that to, this year, maybe engaging 700?’ So just scaling that impact…” remarked Covington.
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To learn more about The Tulsa Initiative and the resources they provide to young entrepreneurs go to www.tulsanonprofit. org or check out their Facebook: www.facebook.com/tulsanonprofit.

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