“We [minorities] fail in business often because of the lack of information,” said Director of Liberty County Minority Chamber Sabrina Newby.

Implemented in 2016, the LCMC was created to bring together minority business owners and professionals to establish improvement in the social economic structure in the Liberty County Business Community. 

“[LCMC] was implemented under the idea that we needed minority representation as it pertained to business and business development,” Newby said. 

One of the things that Newby says the LCMC thrives off of is being an information hub.

“We did not want to be a social chamber because the Liberty Chamber does that very well,” Newby said. “We wanted to be something that the people could withhold as a valuable tool and be able to get the resources they need in order to build, implement, develop, or even sustain their business or business concept.”

The Minority Chamber is now working on incorporating education and business to improve the wellbeing of the minority community through being involved with the One Community Initiative: Focus Education. 

Launched in August 2018, the One Community Initiative is looking to embrace not only children of the minority community but also assist parents in guiding their children to the highest levels of success through business and education. 

“When a kid leaves elementary school, it’s like the interest of parents drops off when it should be continuous all the way through,” said One Community Initiative committee member Dr. Joe E. Kelly.

Kelly, who has 51 years in the educational system, believes getting involved with youth and parents earlier correlates to better success.

“We have to get the parent involved and have more parents understand how they can help their kid to where he or she needs to be,” Kelly said.

The program plans on assisting students in finding their interests, highlighting them, and steering them in the direction of business mentors and entrepreneurship. 

“What we are hoping to do is to start earlier, instead of waiting until the child gets into high school,” Kelly said  “All the resources we have now, there is no reason we can’t get kids trained to start businesses and employing people.”

The initiative will also teach financial literacy, and is working with a number of different church leaders to provide awareness and locations for parents in close proximity.

Helping Young ‘Preneurs Excel is a program within the LCMC also aimed at helping young entrepreneurs develop business concepts.  

“I created the program because when I helped facilitate the youth council workshop in Riceboro, you would be surprised at how many children in there were so gifted … but don’t have anyone to help them cultivate it,” Newby said.

“There are a lot of kids who are brilliantly creative but don’t have anyone to bounce those ideas off,” she added.

You can find more information on the LCMC and their programs at libertycountymc.org.