Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The city of Springfield says it wants the businesses in it to succeed. Community relations director Ethan Posey says Black-owned businesses can especially need a helping hand.

“The mission of this program is to increase the capacity for our minority business owners to help cut down the frequency rates of challenges and barriers that we see,” Posey told aldermen Tuesday, “A lot of times, when we see someone own a business, you expect them to know all of the steps they need to go through in order to comply with what they need from the city, and we’ve seen sometimes that’s just not the case.”

Posey envisions a nine-week program to instruct new minority business owners on the nuts and bolts of what they really need in attempting to operate their own business in Springfield.