Valuable connections
Comcast diversity program provides tech makeovers, awards to minority-owned businesses
Ruth’s Way, a tiny nonprofit that supports teen girls who face barriers to education and success, for years relied on an internet connection at St. James Episcopal Church in Penn Hills, where it leases office space.
“We piggyback off [the church],” said Isis Chatman, founder and chief executive of Ruth’s Way. “If their connection goes out or they are switching providers, it puts us in a tough spot.”
Several months ago, Ms. Chatman learned about a program funded by telecommunications giant Comcast that awards grants and resources to small businesses owned by Black entrepreneurs and other people of color.
Ruth’s Way applied and recently received a Comcast technology upgrade that includes internet, Wi-Fi, voice lines and cybersecurity service for 12 months as well as two laptops and a tablet device.
“It’s simply going to be a gamechanger for us,” said Ms. Chatman, who launched Ruth’s Way out of her car in 2005.
The agency was one of five organizations in the Pittsburgh region to receive awards in the second round of Comcast’s RISE initiative.
Eight local businesses received awards in December in the first round of RISE, which stands for Representation, Investment, Strength and Empowerment.
Comcast created RISE last year after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
It’s part of a $100 million diversity commitment the Philadelphiabased company made in the wake of worldwide protests that erupted after Floyd’s murder and is among many programs rolled out by corporations in response to increased focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and racial inequities. Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial
Services Group, for instance, in June said it would invest more than $1 billion in initiatives to empower Black individuals and communities including workforce development programs, financial education and neighborhood revitalization.
Last week, PNC announced that another $88 billion will be invested to boost economic development in minority neighborhoods and address systemic racism.
Those funds — to be allocated over four years beginning in January 2022 — include $47 billion in home mortgage and home-equity loans for low-income borrowers, $ 26.5 billion in loans to small businesses and small farms, $14.5 billion in community development loans, and an increase to at least $500 million in charitable contributions.
Comcast’s diversity commitment includes $75 million in cash grants and $25 million in technology or media resources.
The first round of Comcast’s awards went to Black-owned firms that experienced disproportionate losses during the COVID-19 pandemic; the second round was expanded to include businesses owned by Native Americans, Latinos and other minorities.
Comcast said it aims to assist 13,000 minorityowned firms nationwide by 2022.
Getting services back, with plans to expand
Alexus Young last spring canceled the Comcast internet service at her Greenfield salon, Natural Expressions Beauty, because she couldn’t afford it when the pandemic forced her to close the business temporarily and reopen with restrictions.
Months later she was shopping for a new service when she saw a TV commercial promoting the Comcast awards.
Natural Expressions won a package that includes a laptop, two tablets, internet, Wi-Fi, five voice lines, cybersecurity and a camera system.
“It was very important to get the services back in here,” said Ms. Young, who received a $3,000 loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program to help with some expenses during the pandemic.
Besides the business website and administrative functions, the tech upgrade allows her and two employees to conduct hair and skin consultations with customers on the iPad tablets, access a music browser and operate the salon’s security system.
Clients check in on the iPads when they arrive and before they leave and to schedule their next appointments.
“Pretty much everything we do here” is tied to technology connections, Ms. Young said.
She is enrolled at Community College of Allegheny County to become a registered nurse, and with the degree, she aims to expand the business into a full-service medical spa.
She also hopes to hire more employees and purchase the building on Greenfield Avenue, where the salon leases space.
“COVID slowed things down,” she said. “But now we’re getting a little too busy.”
Reaching clients remotely
Ruth’s Way, which provides mentoring for girls and their parents and delivers group programs in local school districts, shifted its services to virtual formats during the pandemic.
It lost some contracts but continued programs for clients who could access them remotely.
Besides the unpredictable internet service at her office, Ms. Chatman has encountered security glitches and a virus on the personal laptop she was using for work.
The Comcast award includes a separate device for her and each of the agency’s two other employees, “which we really need,” she said.
“This is perfect timing. It’s going to help our organization provide services at an elevated level.”
Ms. Chatman is also in the process of spinning off some services into a forprofit consulting business.
She founded Ruth’s Way to help girls overcome some of the challenges she faced as a youngster and teen growing up in Homewood: parents who were addicted to drugs and alcohol, bullying and sexual abuse.
Her career before launching Ruth’s Way included jobs in social services and as a claims manager for an insurance company.
“In the corporate world I would walk into a building and feel emptiness,” she said. “I was not fulfilled.”
She started planning her nonprofit on the side, and she said a diagnosis of fibromyalgia “was God’s way of getting my attention and pulling me out of corporate to work on Ruth’s Way full time.”
Two other nonprofits, Vibrant Pittsburgh and the Urban Affairs Foundation at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, are offering mini-grants to fund diversity efforts in the region.
The organizations each committed $25,000 for a $50,000 pool that will fund projects engaged in work that falls under the theme of systemic inequities in the COVID-19 era.
Grants will range from $500 to $7,500.
The deadline to apply is June 11. For information, go to: jewishpgh.org/mini-grantsinitiative.