BUSINESS MINDED

Muncie-Delaware County Black Chamber of Commerce Helps to Lift Up Local Businesses

The Muncie-Delaware County Black Chamber of Commerce is taking strides to help minority businesses, and working hard to provide help for those who need it in the community.

“The Muncie-Delaware County Black Chamber of Commerce is a not-forprofit organization,” says Jason Walker, president. “Our mission for the Chamber is just to serve as an information resource, for developing black, minority and women businesses in Muncie-Delaware County.”

Walker started the Chamber back in 2020, while looking for ways to bring minority businesses together for networking and discussion of community issues. Walker also started the organization to bring awareness of issues for the black community and black-owned businesses in Muncie to politicians.

“My role is to make sure things happen that we’ve got spelled out in our mission statement and our goals for the year,” Walker says. “We do a lot of workshops, seminars and meetings with new businesses that are just getting started, trying to help them move into that next level, or even old businesses that have been in existence for a while that need that platform or step into the right direction to move to the next level.”

George Foley Jr. handles public relations as well as marketing and graphic design for the Chamber. He works alongside Walker, dealing with interviews and radio promotions for different organizations.

Due to their start in 2020, planning events for the community was a bit of a challenge, because there was no chance to do in-person events until 2022. This past year, however, they were able to host their first annual membership luncheon, as well as other events.

“In November we threw our dinner award banquet at Ball State at the Alumni Center, which had a great turnout, and so we were able to honor some other businesses that had never been honored before,” Foley Jr. says. “We had a mixer last March. We did that at Tonne Winery, and the purpose of that mixer was just to introduce businesses and people who never knew each other.”

The Chamber has welcomed speakers to help with certain aspects of business ownership. The Chamber has also been able to link organizations together through Ball State and Ivy Tech, in order to provide businesses with resources they might not have had before.

“We gave them a chance to meet some of these people who have small businesses, and then just say what type of resources they had to offer some of those businesses,” Foley Jr. says. “Moving forward, we’re still planning for 2023 but we have a lot of great events coming up.”

Those wanting to help by becoming a member or donating can visit mdcblackchamber.org for additional details. Also email info@mdcblackchamber.org for more info.