Good Work Network - Good Work News - Chase Competition

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Posted by Darren Morris on 05/13/2008 (203 reads)

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 5-7-08
Chase Bank announces winners of community development competition

By Rebecca Mowbray

A team of students from Washington University in St. Louis and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have won a first-ever community development competition in New Orleans with a plan to renovate a historic building in Central City to support the activities of a non-profit business incubator.

As a prize, JP Morgan Chase Bank NA gave the incubator, the Good Work Network, $25,000 in seed money to get started on the $2.1 million renovation of the Franz Building at 2016 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

Phyllis Cassidy, executive director of the non-profit, which assisted more than 600 mostly start-up businesses last year, said she will use the students' plan to raise money for the project. "We got a very polished and sophisticated business plan," she said.

The winning team, made up of undergraduate architecture students from Washington University in St. Louis and graduate urban planning students at MIT, beat eight other teams in the Chase Community Development Competition.

The students, many of whom have been volunteering in New Orleans over the last two and a half years, said they're excited to see the Good Work Network put their plans to use and help Central City flourish. "We're very excited to work with them so a whole new generation of entrepreneurs is able to get involved in the mainstream economy," said MIT student Holly Jo Sparks.

Chase ran the competition for 13 years in New York, but decided to move it to New Orleans this year at the suggestion of Ed Blakely, director of the Office or Recovery Development and Administration, who was familiar with the competition from his days as dean of the Milano New School for Management and Urban Policy in New York.

John Kallenborn, president of the New Orleans region for Chase Bank, said that about half of the projects in New York got built each year regardless of whether they won. He expects the same thing will happen with the New Orleans projects, which were slated for neighborhoods across the city on themes as diverse as an eco-park, community center, a warehouse, a garden project and economic development for the arts.

A project by the Milano New School to build a mixed-income residential-commercial environmentally certified development in the Lower Garden District took second place, winning $15,000 for Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans' Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp.

Third place went to Tulane University business and architecture students for their plan to create elderly housing at the Bartholomew Golf Course in the Gentilly Woods-Pontchartain Park area. The Pontilly Disaster Collaborative will receive a $10,000 prize to support the effort.

Chase plans to continue the competition in New Orleans on hopes that it will help revitalize the city and attract young professionals to the area.

New Orleans City Business News Online, 5-7-08 Central City incubator moving forward

By Greg LaRose

NEW ORLEANS - A business incubator will move forward with its plans to renovate a building in Central City with help from a group of college students and JPMorgan Chase.

Students from Washington University in St. Louis and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated on a redesign and business plan for the Good Works Network that won Chase's Community Development Competition, held in New Orleans this week for the first time in the event's 14-year history.

The GWN received a $25,000 grant for the Washington-MIT team's winning design and business model for the Franz Building on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. GWN will serve as the anchor tenant in the building, where it plans to provide support services to 500 business a year, said Phyllis Cassidy, GWN executive director. The renovation of the pre-World War II structure is expected to cost $500,000, she said.

Established in 2000, GWN provides training, technical assistance and management-support services to low-income entrepreneurs and nonprofits in the New Orleans area.

The rejuvenation of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in Central City has been one of GWN's primary focuses, with the rehabilitation of the Franz Building as its centerpiece project. The long-term vision for the Haley corridor involves transforming it into an arts and retail district, Cassidy said.

The Chase competition pairs college students and nonprofits to develop real estate proposals. Universities from across the country are eligible to participate.

Other finalists this year were Harvard, Loyola New Orleans, The New School in New York and Tulane.

John Kalleborn, head of Chase operations in the New Orleans area, said it is likely the competition will return to New Orleans next year.

Good Work News : Receives Recovery Grant

Posted by Darren Morris on 04/11/2008 (359 reads)

Improvements target N.O. neighborhoods
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
By Susan Finch
Nineteen grants totaling more than $581,000 have been awarded to help bring to life some of the neighborhood recovery projects envisioned in the Unified New Orleans Plan for rebuilding the city after Hurricane Katrina.

The Greater New Orleans Foundation last week sent letters awarding the grants to the recipients, all nonprofit organizations or government offices, with proposals to provide a physical improvement to a neighborhood, such as a park, bike path or landscape restoration, to gather data or to create detailed plans for neighborhoods that want to supplement what is in the city's post-Katrina recovery plan.

Ten grants are targeted for on-the-ground improvements. They are:
-- $40,000 to the city Parks and Parkways Department to restore and enhance Palmer, Lafayette, Lawrence, Markey and Collins neighborhood parks.

-- $25,000 to City Park to construct a bike path on Harrison Avenue.

-- $40,000 to Good Work Network to support the purchase and renovation of the Franz Building on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard for small business incubation services and new retail businesses.

-- $27,000 to Longue Vue House & Garden to support the Pontilly Disaster Collaborative's green spaces rehabilitation services.

-- $30,000 to the Neighborhood Planning Network for community liaisons to promote and coordinate neighborhood improvement projects with neighborhood associations, civic organizations and nonprofit groups.

-- $25,422 to Parkway Partners to plant and care for street trees in Central City.

-- $40,000 to the Algiers Economic Development Foundation and the Algiers Community Foundation for facade improvements along Gen. Mayer Avenue.

-- $20,000 to Stay Local to implement a part of the planned Lafitte Greenway.

-- $20,000 to The Phoenix of New Orleans to establish the Broad Street Market.

-- $20,000 to the Oak Street-Main Street program for street trees, bike racks, benches, gateway signage and trash receptacles on the Oak Street commercial corridor.

Picture of the Franz Building

Good Work News : Michael Hall

Posted by Darren Morris on 07/30/2007 (240 reads)

Michael Hall
Business and Home Inventory Professionals LLC (BHIP)
924 Valmont St., Ste. 301C – NOLA 70115
www.bhipinventory.com

Michael Hall stands over six feet tall, his arms folded, wearing an exuberant smile. On this day, he is posing for the camera and recounting the story of how his new venture Business and Home Inventory Professionals (BHIP) LLC was born six months earlier.

BHIP’s has completed its strategic marketing plan with the assistance of the Good Work Network business resource center and is launching an aggressive cable tv campaign. Hall beams as he holds a finished 30-second TV spot in his hands.

“This is a life’s dream...owning my own business,” stated Hall. “Actually this is my second venture…my first, three years ago I bought into a tax service franchise… was destroyed by the Storm.”

The “Storm” (synonymous for the fall 2005 twin hurricane disasters of Katrina and Rita) is a common denominator in the stories of countless business owners, carrying with its gray clouds the proverbial silver lining.

“I just looked out at the incredible amount of damage done to the City [of New Orleans] and the problems people were having with insurance companies, and I kept thinking, ‘what can I do?’ when one morning this concept came to me, he tells:

“Document property and provide a complete written, digital and video inventory to protect people against the unexpected.”

Everything else happened like magic.

“Timing,” he adds with a snap of his fingers: “I woke up with an idea. My mother found a flyer, which turned out to be from the Good Work Network. I checked out what it was about. Ran it by my mother and tried it out.”

Testing the services was the best thing he could have done. “They took a good idea. And made it great,” credits the 27-year-old Hall. “They helped me to expand my vision. At first I looked at the service only for homeowners, but they helped me to consider commercial customers.”

“If anything, Katrina has made my business easier,” states Hall. “Because now people know that this can happen: fire, theft or disaster. In many respects, I look at it like the storm set this business up…set the tone. People wouldn’t have believed this was even necessary before.”

The benefits of BHIP’s full documentation services help to maximize the filing of insurance claims, ease the claim process and save time for owners of residential, commercial and rental properties.

When asked would BHIP be this far along without the assistance of Good Work Network, Hall answers with a resounding, no.

“Because of Good Work Network, we are having 15-17 inquires a week,” states Hall. “They kept me going -- assistance. They believed in me…kept me on my toes…motivated. They understood my situation and got me over the hump.”

Through rigorous training, coaching, administration assistance and capital, Good Work Network supplied him with a grant, provided technical and legal assistance as well as valuable leads and contacts.

“The entire staff was versatile and wonderful from the first day that I met them,” continues Hall. “They understood my idea from the gate and pushed me -- the whole staff. I definitely wouldn’t be at this point, nor would I be as polished as I am right now.”

There’s tremendous wisdom behind his words, betraying his boyish face. “Good Work Network is great,” he testifies, “and I thank them.”

View Commercial

Good Work News : Eric Julien

Posted by Darren Morris on 04/19/2007 (243 reads)

Eric Paul Julien
E-Paul Photography
www.e-pauljulien.com
New Orleans

His eye is masterful. And after viewing his works, you get the feeling, like you are witnessing a young Gordon Parks. There’s an anticipation that lingers with you after seeing his portraits, like bigger things will come from this artist.

“My mind races with a million ideas,” he says. “It was like that the day I first encountered the Good Work Network.”

On his way delivering art to the Barrister’s Gallery, then on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Julien noticed a long, vertical marquee reading: Handleman’s and the storefront peppered with b/w photographs.

“I passed this sign, stopped and asked what was going on here,” an inquisitive Julien recalls. “That is they day I met Phyllis who told me that I was at the Good Work Network. My next question to her was, ‘Do you guys give out money?’ to which she nodded, yes.”

The $2,000 program grant became an inspiration for him.

“My family has always been in business for themselves, raising sugar cane on 4,000 acres on their own land called the Africa plantation. Plus, I was in business for self at 7 years old selling Dixie cups.

“I just knew I wanted to be in my own businesses but I wasn’t sure what,” he admits. “Nonetheless, I enrolled in the training class. But I kept switching ideas.”

Julien chased one idea after another. “At the time I was earning money in construction as a painter, so I thought I might do a construction business.”

Upon trying to complete a research assignment, he hit a brick wall. “I literally couldn’t see what I was looking at on the computer screen anymore,” he describes. Rubbing and squinting his eyes, he suddenly felt déjà vu of the time after a terrible car accident when he mentally blocked out the location of the scene until 10 years later he searched through court records to identify.

Sharing this painful experience with his counselor, she simply reminded him: Aren’t you a photographer?

From that moment on, everything clicked like the shutter of a camera. “I began to see the prime opportunity that I was not taking a chance on: to make a living at doing what I love – photography.”

Julien found himself more focused and committed to developing his business plan. He was a sponge in his entrepreneurial training classes, expanding his knowledge through suggested readings such as Rich dad. Poor dad, which encouraged him to “stick his neck out.”

“This was a time where I learned to balance the artist with the astute business man and to give it a real chance to see what would happen.”

With only a small investment of $50, Julien worked with Good Work Network to build a $5,000 web site and received a grant to purchase professional equipment.

“As far as marketing, I am already ahead of my peers with this website. Had I not come to Good Work Network, where would I be?” he asks and then answers, “I would be doing construction on one side and fine art on the other. In other words, I would be struggling artist.”

Good Work News : Nerissa Cole

Posted by Darren Morris on 10/20/2006 (407 reads)

A GOOD WORK NETWORK SUCCESS STORY:
Nerissa Cole - Blessings In Disguise Uniforms
www.BIDUniforms.com

Blessings in Disguise Uniforms (BID), is a start-up home based business specializing in children’s school uniforms. B.I.D. Uniforms primary target market is the Avondale, LA school district. B.I.D. Uniforms offers the convenience of ordering school uniforms via internet, fax, or phone and the convenience of front door delivery. This unique system of operations alleviates the “back to school” shopping stress for many parents.

The proprietor, Nerissa Cole, recognized the pressing need for a uniform supplier in her community who was able to offer convenience to consumers. After dealing with the frustrations of getting off work too late to get to the uniform shop or making it there a minute before closing only to find out the store was out of her children’s sizes, an overwhelming burden was placed upon my heart to make a difference in the uniform vending industry. Blessing in Disguise Uniforms is committed to meeting the needs of its customers, guaranteeing quality service and convenience.

Nerissa Cole enrolled in the TANF Microenterprise Program at the Good Work Network and successfully completed Personal Effectiveness, Financial Management, and Entrepreneurial Training. Ms. Cole was highly motivated and committed to making her business concept a reality. Ms. Cole has done exactly that as Blessing in Disguise Uniforms was open for business before the Fall 2006School Year began! Nerissa had a dream, and now through her own diligence and a little assistance, she is living her dream. The funds from the TANF Microenterprise Program will allow B.I.D. Uniforms the opportunity to purchase needed office equipment, supplies, inventory, and advertisement.

The Good Work Network, a 501(c)(3) organization, was established in the Fall of 2000 to help economically disadvantaged individuals and businesses increase their income and wealth by acquiring the skills and resources necessary to participate more fully in self-employment and micro enterprise opportunities available in the mainstream economy. THE GOOD WORK NETWORK—CONNECTING SMALL BUSINESSES TO THE RESOURCES THEY NEED. www.GoodWorkNetwork.org

An OPPORTUNITY is not an OPPORTUNITY if you don't have the RESOURCES needed to succeed. ---- Julius Walls, Jr