Urban League, Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Urban League, 3458 Reading Road, Cincinnati, OH  45229 (http://www.gcul.org/programs1/economic-opportunity/) is the SBDC for Cincinnati and Hamilton County.  The League has relationships with the Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative, the African-American Chamber of Commerce, and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's Minority Business Accelerator.   But the Urban League is also the sponsor of the Ohio River Valley Women's Business Council (http://www.orvwbc.org/), whose mission is "to certify bona fide women-owned businesses and to promote the activities directed at the development, establishment, expansion and encouragement of businesses owned by women." This is a potential resource for women, especially "minority" women.   Benefits of certification are said to be:

• National recognition by thousands of major U.S. corporations and several public agencies as a certified WBE.
• B2B opportunities with other WBEs via networking and database access.
• Procurement inquiries by governmental and private entities that utilize WBE database to access potential vendors.
• Ohio River Valley Women’s Business Council’s networking opportunities both internal and external.
• Advocacy of women owned businesses to major corporations, government agencies and other buying organizations