Staunton group aims to offer support for black business owners

STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) – The Staunton Black Business Collective was created to support black business owners and encourage entrepreneurship in Staunton.

“We are a group of community stakeholders whether we are founders of organizations or entrepreneurs or long-term business owners or folks who have been working with black businesses in the community,” said Sabrina Burress, Chair of the Staunton Black Business Collective.

Burress said is made up of individuals who have an innate interest and responsibility to businesses of color in the community to make sure they feel supported.

The initial conversations around starting an organization have been going on for a bout the last two years, said Burress.

“In January of this year, we all came together with sort of some our ideas, some of our past meetings, some of the connections and really started to move forward this idea of this specific collective for our community,” said Burress.

Burress said it is hard to run a business and having a network of people who you can come to for support and just be heard. She added this is an important part of what they see people are needing.

This organization’s main focus is in Staunton, there are other organizations doing similar work in other parts of the valley.

“Instead of trying to expand our work to other areas looking for opportunities for collaborations so we can work with the people who are already doing the work in other areas of our region,” said Burress.

Burress said the collective is trying to get the word out to the community they are here and to build trust.

“Trust building is so incredibly important especially when have all these other factors of running a business and doing the budget, and preparing the food or whatever the product is and we want people to feel comfortable reaching out us,” said Burress.

The collective itself meets about once a month. Burress said there is a weekly event for black and brown business owners that focuses on community building called “Coffee on Mondays”.

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