I'm Councilmember Fred Flickinger, presiding chair of the Economic Development Committee.

Call this meeting to order.

Wanted to welcome all of the council members and staff, Councilwoman Alcorn, and we have staff from Councilwoman Salinas, Councilman Castillo, Councilmember Cayman, Councilmember Ramirez, and the Mayor Pro Tem staff as well.

And uh Didi's promise to make me not make too many stakes, so we should be good.

The meeting is open to the public and is being held in person and virtually.

We are also broadcasting via Houston HTV.

Uh Council members and staff, please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.

If you would like to ask a question and are present in the chamber, request to speak, or if you're joining virtually, type request to speak in the chat pod, and you will be recognized in order.

You will be advised when the two minutes have expired.

Council members attending virtually, please please use the chat pod to communicate.

There was one member of the public who is signed up to speak today.

If there are any public speakers present here in the chamber who wish to uh sign up to speak, there's a sign-up sheet at the front table on your right.

Public speakers will have a chance to speak after the conclusion of the presentations.

Any questions can be emailed to District K at Houston TX.gov and will be forwarded to the respective department entities for responses.

Okay.

Um the first on the agenda have uh Director Horde, uh Director of the Mayor's Office of Business Opportunity will present on expanding economic opportunity LGBTQ.

Director Hord, thank you for being here.

Please proceed.

Let it down a little bit.

Thank you.

I'm very little.

Thank you guys for having me once again.

Um we are here today to present on the expanding economic opportunity project that we've partnered with with Councilmember Castillo.

This is our LGBTQ plus economic empowerment initiative.

Um we start out, of course, with our mission uh representing equal represent equal representation and advocacy for all small businesses by providing pathways to partnerships, capacity expansion and growth.

Um we are looking for our vision.

We've changed our vision a little bit.

In the small business community, we will foster partnerships by driving equitable economic growth across the Houston region.

Um let's talk about our Houston LGBT plus economic snapshot.

We have approximately a hundred and ninety-four thousand LGBTQ plus adults that live in Houston in our metropolitan area.

And we have 71 LGBT BE certified firms currently registered with the City of Houston in our certified directory.

The Greater Houston Chamber, the LGBTQ Plus Chamber of Commerce has more than 500 registered members, and that includes their business partners, organizations, and other partners, and individual members.

They have a monthly chamber breakfast.

It draws about 125 individuals to sometimes 150.

Um it provides a strong engagement opportunity and outreach for program participation.

Next slide.

How do we get here?

Uh Councilmember Castillo proposed, as you recall last year, to have an LGBTQ plus community engagement coordinator uh located at the Office of Business Opportunity.

It was approved for funding last fiscal year.

I offer $30,000, 10,000 of which came from Councilmember Ramirez and the other 20,000 from Councilmember Castillo.

The areas of focus for this project was to connect the LGBTQ plus job seekers with the workforce development resources and career readiness programs.

We want to support the community that owns small businesses and entrepreneurs with the business development guidance, increasing the awareness of OBO in our certification with the small business community, and expanding the participation of the LGBTQ plus community in our business directory.

LG Houston's LGBTQ Plus community includes thousands of residents who are job seekers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who contribute to our city's economic growth and our workforce.

This role that we hired is part-time, and they connect the LGBTQ plus residents and job seekers with workforce development resources.

We've been connecting with small business support programs, certification opportunities, as well as our city contracting pathways.

Next slide.

We have job fair collaborations with Texas Workforce Commission.

And we're expanding those into the LGBTQ plus community with Montrose Center and with the Council members' office.

We want to increase the awareness of city contracting opportunities.

As you're aware, with the new goals, we do we have incorporated the LTT Plus BE, that business enterprise certification to be counted for up to 4% of a goal in lieu of the shortfall of the M and the W.

And so in the past we had the certification.

It was to be identifiable in a directory, but there was no count to our participation.

Now those businesses are able to count to our participation.

We also want to grow our engagement with the entrepreneurs in the community.

Next slide.

At those two workshops, we've had 30 job seekers who've been supported.

Two job seekers secured employment, and seven were employed and they're pursuing advancement.

We have 10 job seekers who are receiving ongoing support from our office.

We have 15 community events, 10 businesses connected to city resources, two businesses that apply for the certification in addition to the current certified firms.

Five businesses express interest in the certification.