Small Business Development and Asset Building
Portfolio 3 focuses on strengthening the economic foundations of small businesses and workers by exploring practical strategies for asset building, financial stability, and long-term growth through community-rooted solutions, shared infrastructure, and financial tools that expand access to capital and support systems.
The Camden Business Collaborative
Partners: The Community Foundation of South Jersey, St. John’s Carpenter’s Society, Karnival Foods, La Ingrata, Rutgers School of Business, The Food Trust, local entrepreneurs
This Camden Business Collaborative explores practical ways Camden food businesses can work together to make running a business easier based on what business owners say they actually need. The Lab provides ongoing facilitation, synthesis, strategy, and technical assistance to the Collaborative and participating businesses, with a focus on using design principles to ideate, test, and scale effective approaches.
Building an Economic Floor: Work as a Pathway for Asset Building and Stability
This discovery research and prototyping planning initiative examines how benefits, debt relief, and asset-building tools can better support young workers’ economic stability. Rather than advancing a predetermined solution or pilot, the project focuses on feasibility—identifying what supports matter most to young workers, what employers and institutions can realistically implement, and what conditions are required for future, scalable investment.