City of Boston boosts efforts to expand reach of government contracts

Boston is ramping up its efforts to heighten the diversity of government contractors, announcing on Monday a new technical assistance program and compact aimed at driving more lucrative city business to women, people of color, veterans, and LGBTQ people. Mayor Michelle Wu joined a number of other city officials at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury to announce the fresh efforts. Last year, the city handed out more than $1 billion worth of taxpayer-funded contracts, which Wu said are “one of the most important ways that city government can have an impact.” Wu announced the launch of a program called Supplying Capital and Leveraging Education, or SCALE, a $2.4 million initiative to connect businesses owned by members of underrepresented communities with the technical assistance, education, and other support necessary to secure large contracts. The goal is to include 18 companies in the first year of the program, in industries ranging from waste collection to snow removal to dining services. The program will be funded by money from the federal American Rescue Plan. The city’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion also disclosed Monday that in fiscal year 2023, about 14 percent of the $1.08 billion worth of city contracts went to certified minorityowned or women-owned business enterprises, up from less than 1 percent in 2018. The city also joined a number of other groups in signing “A Compact to Build Local Economic Growth” to coordinate on issues related to supplier diversity. Other signatories included representatives from the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, The Asian Business Empowerment Council, Amplify Latinx, and CommonWealth Kitchen.