Sabrina Madison, a black entrepreneur, announced her partnership with the Urban League of Greater Madison on Wednesday to house a new center providing leadership opportunities and resources for the advancement of women of color in Madison.
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Known as “Hey Miss Progress,” Sabrina Madison led the vision for the center, which will be known as the Progress Center for Black Women. Madison hopes to confront disparities with unequal pay and lack of women in higher positions, according to a press release.
“Helping restore Black women will restore Black families,” Madison said in a press release. “Too often, area black women work in racially-toxic environments, juggle astronomical stressors their white counterparts do not and all while raising their families with less than $100 in savings.”
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According to the press release, black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. In Dane County, black women earn on average $16,000 less than white females and $20,000 less than white males.
Madison called on the community to join her in her mission to combat these statistics and help low income black women and women of color become successful business leaders. Along with the Progress Center for Black Women and other events promoting black businesses such as the Black Business Expo, new programming will be integrated to further assist women of color in their entrepreneurial endeavors.
This will include a networking program that will link black entrepreneurs to professionals in their area of interest, a black women’s leadership nine-month accelerator program and a lending program for low income women of color who want to learn more professionalism.
The projected cost for the new programming and integration for one year is $150,000. Madison hopes to raise this amount by the end of December this year.