Today, Feb 27, 2024, UBC and Casa Foundation announced their partnership to launch the Black Advisor Hub (BAH) in Western Canada. The Casa Foundation has been awarded funding from the Government of Canada’s Black Entrepreneurship Program to execute and deliver the Black Advisory Hub, a national program across Canada to support Black entrepreneurs in Canada to start and grow their businesses. Casa initiatives include business fundamentals training, mentorship, entrepreneurial programming, networking events, webinars, and workshops that provide resources and opportunities for Black entrepreneurs, and support for Black-led businesses. entrepreneurship@UBC will be the delivery partner for the BAH program and related services at UBC.
The goal of the BAH program is to deliver national services over four years to support 8,500 entrepreneurs and 750 Black-led businesses while creating 175 new businesses and an estimated 1,000 jobs. The Casa Foundation identified the University of British Columbia as an academic anchor, and entrepreneurship@UBC specifically as the delivery partner, to help them connect with, and find ways to support BIPOC entrepreneurs at UBC and the broader regional ecosystem. Since 2013, entrepreneurship@UBC has supported over 740 UBC-founded ventures by providing a broad range of services such as entrepreneurial skills training, embedded mentorship and advisory services, and Makerspace, among other important resources. e@UBC has a strong track record of working collaboratively across the university. and is recognized as a valued partner throughout Vancouver’s startup ecosystem.
Finally, @UBC’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is rooted in its mission to democratize entrepreneurship. Recognizing the diversity of @UBC’s venture community where approximately 40% of ventures supported by @UBC were co-founded by at least one international student; 64% of ventures addressing three or more United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and 55% of mentorship hours were delivered by women in 2023, partnering with the Casa Foundation is the ideal complement to e@UBC venture resources.
The Casa Foundation is so pleased to partner with the University of British Columbia in our efforts to bring the BAH to Western Canada. Our mission of sharing scalable, innovative approaches and resources to supporting economic integration of Black entrepreneurs, will be furthered through this collaboration.