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High Point launches support program for women and minority-owned businesses

A view of Main Street during the Spring 2021 High Point Market. PAUL GARBER/WFDD

High Point officials have launched an initiative aimed at supporting minority and women-owned businesses in the city. 

The Thrive High Point program is being led by Business High Point - Chamber of Commerce, a public/private collaboration formed in 2015. The goal is to encourage and empower minority business owners and entrepreneurs.

According to a news release, the initiative is an outgrowth of this past summer's High Point Equity Project. That program provided non-traditional financing along with technical assistance, mentorship, and coaching.

Thrive High Point incorporates several new partnerships, beginning with High Point University's $500,000 challenge gift. A steering committee driven by local leaders led to a collaboration with the National Institute of Minority Economic Development.

The Institute is led by Guilford County native Dr. Bryle Henderson Hatch.

Other partners include the social innovation consulting firm Change Often and the Congdon Family Foundation, which has supported the creation of new downtown work and meeting spaces.

Officials say the ultimate goal of the Thrive program is to embody what they call “the diversity of an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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