Women of Color LEGACY African American & Afro-Black Community Program

Through monthly sessions and collaborative initiatives, LEGACY is the place where ideas flourish, connections thrive, and successes are celebrated. Join us in building a community that embraces creativity, excellence, and the limitless potential of African American, Afro, and Black women in business.

What is a WBENC Community Resource Group (CRG)?

A WBENC Community Resource Group is a safe place where women of color entrepreneurs with similar cultural backgrounds can connect and engage with one another. Each community resource group is designed to provide support, expert insights, and networking opportunities to the women of color entrepreneurs in each community. Join a WBENC Community Resource Group to connect with likeminded WOC entrepreneurs, celebrate your cultural experience, and grow your business.

How Does a WBENC Community Resource Group (CRG) Work? 

Monthly Community Sessions

Each community resource group will host 1-hour monthly sessions where attendees can connect with one another and learn together.

Who Does This Group Serve?

African American, Afro, and Black Women of Color Entrepreneurs

The WBENC Women of Color LEGACY Community Resource Group is an inclusive and empowering space created specifically for African American, Afro, and Black women of color entrepreneurs. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur, a budding startup founder, or exploring the world of business ownership, LEGACY is open to all who seek support, networking opportunities, and a community of like-minded women entrepreneurs.

The WBENC Women of Color (WOC) LEGACY Program is cultivating a business ecosystem for African American and Afro-Black women of color through four initial program pillars, consistent with the overall WBENC Women of Color program pillars:

• Community Building: WOC is a tight-knit community, sharing resources for accelerating growth, strategizing to overcome problems, and meeting new customers.
• Market Access: WOC identifies and leverages regional network areas that focus on the advancement and development of WOC businesses and connects them to the WOC community.
• Resources: WOC provides support throughout the year with resources in education, support, leadership development, mentorship and provides materials to help strengthen and enhance WOC businesses’ capacity for doing business with corporations.
• Human Capital: WOC empowers and advances women owned businesses by providing education, inspirational speakers, facilitators, consulting, trainings, subject experts, coaches, and more for aspiring WOC leaders. The program also connects women of color entrepreneurs to pipelines of talent and emphasizes the importance of developing their teams as their most valuable asset.
• Innovation: WOC facilitates innovation and growth by building bridges with the next generation of women-led firms and entrepreneurs through partnerships with universities and the WBENC NextGen program.

WBENC launched the WBENC Women of Color Program in 2017 to create an effective and successful business ecosystem designed to engage, advise and drive the growth of women of color women-owned businesses.

Since then, thousands of women entrepreneurs have attended in-person and virtual sessions at WBENC events, designed to address the challenges faced by many women of color business owners and provide resources and programming to address those challenges.

As an outreach and development program, the WBENC Women of Color program is open to all women business owners, including WBENC-Certified Women’s Business Enterprises and those not yet certified.

If you are a female entrepreneur, but not yet certified by WBENC, attending a Women of Color program event is a great way to get a taste of the network.

We also invite all allies of women of color business owners to participate, including Corporate Members, WBEs or other partners.