October 2, 2019
Minority & Small Business Week
Page 11
Help Supporting
Diversity in Business
New effort
recruits
companies to
join cause
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
As president of the Philippine
American Chamber of Commerce
of Oregon, Jan Mason knows a
thing or two about diversity, so
she was thrilled to learn about
Portland Means Progress, a new
program by the city of Portland
that encourages businesses to
hire minority students, buy from
businesses owned by people of
color, and create a more diverse
workplace and inclusive compa-
ny culture.
Mason, who is also associate
principal and director of market-
ing at Mackenzie Architecture,
knew right away she wanted her
firm to get involved because they
were thinking along the same
lines.
“Outside of this (city effort),
we had been looking at our cor-
porate responsibility, looking at
how we can improve, and when
by
Jan Mason of Mackenzie
Architecture
we looked at Portland Means
Progress, it aligned with what we
were doing with our organiza-
tion,” she said.
Portland Means Progress is
a program of Prosper Portland,
the city’s economic development
agency, and states on its website,
portlandmeansprogress.com, that
when companies commit diver-
sity in the workplace, it creates
wider opportunities for young
people and business owners of
color, “creating a more equitable
economy for all.”
Diversity is also good for busi-
ness, according to the website, in
photo by k im n guyen Courtesy p rosper p ortland
Speaker Kim Malek, president and chief executive officer of Salt & Straw, addresses Mayor Ted
Wheeler and other attendees during a public session earlier this year to provide information about
Portland Means Progress, a city program to help businesses create a more diverse workplace and
inclusive company culture.
that purpose-driven companies
“outperform their peers in finan-
cial returns, customer loyalty and
employee satisfaction and reten-
tion.”
According to the city, Port-
land’s youth of color comprise 47
percent of 15 to 19-year-olds, yet
many do not have access to op-
portunities for their future.
Several of the Portland Means
Progress programs are designed
to promote hiring young people
from diverse backgrounds, while
also asking companies to create
internships for underrepresented
youths, pay them a minimum of
$15 an hour, and come up with
other plans to create a more di-
verse workplace and inclusive
company culture.
The effort kicked off in March,
when 50 local businesses, includ-
ing Mackenzie, signed on as “ear-
ly adopters” of the program. So
C ontinued on p age 17