Anyone who knows anything about High Point knows that, in recent years, there’s been a massive and concerted effort to rejuvenate that city’s downtown.

One new organization that’s gearing up to begin operations this summer – the High Point Equity Project – is all about making sure that minorities and women have the ability to participate in those economic opportunities.

  The Equity Project has been likened by city officials to a small business incubator for minority and women-owned businesses, as well as for “economically-challenged” and “non-traditional” businesses in High Point.

As the name implies, project backers hope the new small business support organization helps bring equity to the city’s downtown revitalization effort and to the city more broadly.  The Equity Project will do so by providing select businesses technical assistance and entrepreneurial guidance.  It will also help businesses acquire financing at reasonable interest rates and help them build “strategic partnerships that lead to success.”

The Equity Project will open its doors in downtown High Point this summer.

Some backing that has made the service possible are a $500,000 challenge-gift from High Point University as well as the High Point Community Foundation’s agreement to act as the project’s fiduciary agent.

The  Guilford County Board of Commissioners has also thrown in some financial support.  Earlier this year, the board voted unanimously to contribute $100,000 of county taxpayer money to the effort.

Chief Operating Officer of Business High Point Rachel Moss said the High Point Equity Project – working with its partners Change Often and the National Institute of Minority Economic Development – will provide access to capital, and, more importantly, access to “wrap-around services that our underserved minority- and women-owned businesses in High Point historically have not had.”

To find out more about the Equity Project – and how you can benefit from it, participate with it or contribute to it – visit www.changeoftenllc.com.