Trini leads the charge in US$1m project in Chicago

A Trinidadian living in the US is leading the charge to help rebuild, reimagine and reinvent struggling businesses and communities in Chicago after a businessman recently offered $1 million to the project.

Bevon Joseph is the president and CEO of the Greenwood Project, an organisation geared at connecting minority youths to careers in the financial service industry. He is originally from Diego Martin.

On Monday, Fox32 reported that businessman Marcus Lemonis made an offer last week Tuesday on Twitter to invest the $1 million "into any neighbourhood that our community thinks needs it the most."

Joseph, 42, told Newsday by phone, "I follow Mr Lemonis on social media, like many other members of the Greenwood Project. He made the offer last week and many people saw it. We connected, and last Thursday, he invited me to a meeting. We already started the groundwork."

Lemonis is the owner of Camping World, a multi-billion-dollar company. He is also the host of CNBC’s one-hour episode, The Profit.

In the news interview, Lemonis said he needed to surround himself with people who knew the city way better than him. Acknowledging that black lives matter, he also said many communities in the US are not given the same opportunities. Lemonis chose Joseph and the Greenwood Project.

Joseph said, "We started in 2016 and it has grown really fast. We have worked with over 300 people and it is expanding to include people from New York. Our main focus is diversity, to get brown and black people more involved in the financial sector."

Joseph explained that small businesses have been negatively affected by the covid19 pandemic. Some business in the city were also looted and damaged owing to violent protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Additionally, minority communities continue to grapple with inequality issues including social discrimination and unequal access to employment. He vowed that youths will be playing a major role in the rebuilding of the city.

Joseph said he migrated to New York after graduating from secondary school about 26 years ago. About nine years ago, he moved to Chicago. For the past 20 years, he has worked in the financial sector.

"One of my goals is to do something for TT. I would love for local financial firms to work/partner with us. I will like to do an event to bring people together to talk about the stock market and finances," Joseph said.

His organisation offers paid summer internships, educational field trips and a summer financial institute for high school students. He hopes soon to include students from UWI in TT inavirtual internship programme. He said the internships offer unmatched exposure to the financial industry.

Of the US$1 million, $100,000 goes to the Greenwood Project.