Community Investment Collaborative Receives 2021 Vanguard Award

“The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce Minority Business Alliance has selected Community Investment Collaborative (CIC) as the recipient of the 2021 John F. Bell Sr. Vanguard Award.

MBA leaders presented the award to CIC staff on Monday, September 13, as part of Minority Business Month, a month-long celebration of local minority businesses.

“At a time when resources for entrepreneurs were scarce, I saw firsthand how CIC staff began to handle the enormous amount of recovery loans, COVID grants, business equity loans and other resources to literally hundreds of small and minority business owners,” said Alex Urpí, Minority Business Alliance treasurer and CEO of Emergent Financial Services.

“The staff worked incredibly hard and incredibly long to make sure they did not turn down these opportunities that municipalities and counties were pleading for to make sure COVID relief funds made it to BIPOC-owned businesses,” Urpí said.”

Read more about our work and the award!