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24/7 Blac, founded in 2020, is focused on financial empowerment programs including business creation, career readiness and homeownership.

For Sharina Sallis, 2020 was a defining moment for her and her community. 

“It was the perfect storm,” said Sallis, who is the president of 24/7 Black Leadership Advancement Consortium (24/7 Blac) in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa. “People were plagued with the pandemic. We were all sent home in isolation from our community. We were watching George Floyd being murdered on TV. As a result, people were slowing down and turning their focus on what was happening in their lives and community.”

It was that, along with a the worst metro area in the U.S. for Black Americans due to income, unemployment and home ownership disparities, that spurred the creation of 24/7 Blac and an ongoing partnership with ��ɫ����Ƶ.

“No one wants to hold onto that designation [as the worst place in the U.S. for Black people],” said Joy Briscoe, the executive director of 24/7 Blac. “That’s not my Waterloo. Through 24/7 Blac, we are working to address that by specifically working with the Black community around a lack of economic empowerment and financial literacy.”

Two years since 24/7 Blac was founded, there are now four core programs aimed at supporting the Black community: career readiness, a business accelerator program, homeownership preparedness and an investment group. In the months that followed its founding, ��ɫ����Ƶ began partnering with 24/7 Blac.

“We cannot do this work without partners,” said Sallis. “Partners that are willing to say how can I support you and create space for you.”

In 2021, to advance generational wealth among Black business owners, 24/7 Blac received a $50,000 Market Impact Fund (MIF) grant from the ��ɫ����Ƶ Foundation. Launched in 2019, MIF grants have addressed urgent needs in communities across the 26-state footprint of ��ɫ����Ƶ.

“We are trying to change and transform the outcomes for the Black community,” said Ashlei Spivey, a business access advisor at ��ɫ����Ƶ who spoke at a 24/7 Blac leadership event in June 2022. “To partner with an organization like 24/7, who is leading in their community, we are able to share, learn and be thoughtful about our approach.” 

This includes programs like ��ɫ����Ƶ Access Home, which focuses on supporting and growing Black homeownership, and sharing information and resources with the community. That’s where Kelly Newton, the mortgage sales supervisor for ��ɫ����Ƶ in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area, comes in. 

When the second cohort of people go through 24/7 Blac’s homebuying classes this fall, Newton will spend Saturdays discussing how to become mortgage-ready and what the mortgage application process looks like.

“Homeownership is the biggest driver toward building generational wealth,” said Newton. “I work with those in the cohort because I want to share what I know and give good information to those who haven’t had access to it and deserve more.”

For Sallis and Briscoe, what’s been accomplished in 24/7 Blac’s first couple of years of existence is just the beginning: 40 business have gone through their accelerator program; three business owners have turned it into their full-time job, and three people in the first homebuyer cohort have closed on their new homes.

“We thought we could do a little something when we started, but it turns out a lot of people needed what we were offering,” said Briscoe. “The work we began is now bigger than all of us.”