Latest Bridging Blocks gathering connects aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners

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Bridging Blocks, a community conversation series hosted by WHYY and the Free Library of Philadelphia, continued this week at the Parkway Central Library, focusing on the impact of small businesses in Philadelphia.

Multiple special guests attended the Nov. 7 conversation, including Bridging Blocks donors Fred and Barbara Sutherland.

Fred Sutherland, the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Philadelphia-based food service corporation Aramark, joined the conversation as an observer and a participant. He expressed Bridging Blocks being a useful tool for uniting neighbors and communities.

“I think it’s important to try to bring people together,” Sutherland said of the program. “We’re so dichotomized these days, people heading a million different directions at once. We’ve lost over time. I think a sense of community – that we really need.”

Other guests included WHYY President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Marrazzo, the Free Library of Philadelphia’s President Kelly Richards and Chief of Adult Services and Programs Veronica Britto and Thomas Ginsburg, Pew Charitable Trust’s small business expert.

Prior to group discussion, Britto and Ginsburg gave presentations. Britto provided an overview of the career services that the library currently offers, from its Business Resource and Innovation Center to financial literacy programs.

Ginsburg provided an overview of Pew’s work regarding small businesses in Philadelphia. According to Pew Research, self-employed ventures — otherwise known as “zero employee” businesses — made up over 82% of all businesses in the city in 2021.

Additionally, Pew Research reported that immigrants made up 24% of the self-employed small businesses in America, which is over double the group’s population.

This statistic sparked conversation among attendees, as some wondered how small business owner demographics might shift following the 2024 presidential election. Center City resident Perry Steindel worried about what the state of self-employment will look like for immigrants under the second Trump administration.

“The whole thing with what is about to hit us with Trump and people who are undocumented … I’m worried for them,” Steindel said.