Comcast RISE Investment Fund Provides $16 Million in Grants to Support Small Businesses Hardest Hit By the COVID-19 Pandemic

Beginning on June 1, and through June 14, eligible businesses in Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the Twin Cities can apply for a $10,000 grant at www.ComcastRISE.com. A total of 100 grants per city, or 500 grants overall, will be announced and awarded in July 2022. The Investment Fund is an extension of Comcast RISE, the multi-year, multi-faceted initiative launched in October 2020 to support small businesses and provide the resources and tools they need today and in the future.

Comcast RISE Recipients to Date

Comcast also announced the latest round of Comcast RISE recipients, which includes 1,317 small businesses owned by people of color and women, that will receive grants in the form of a TV campaign, production of a TV commercial or consulting services from Effectv or computer equipment, internet, voice or cybersecurity from Comcast Business, as well as access to Ureeka, an online platform

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Garstang-based Amazon business set up in back bedroom expands down under with support from Lancashire growth hub

Formed at the start of 2010, Rosetta Brands began as specialists in the online sale of fun gifts from the USA to UK consumers

Owner Nick Comer, who began the business working from a spare bedroom at home, soon found online sales from Amazon were really taking off, and relocated to offices in Nateby, Garstang to manage his growing business.

Nick contacted Boost’s business relationship management team in 2017 and was referred to Boost’s Bespoke Programme and was introduced to Hayley Caine, a sales and marketing strategist.

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Nick Comer and the Rosetta Brands team in Garstang

Nick said: “I look right back to the very first conversation with Hayley when I divulged our initial concept to grow our business as the ‘gateway’ between food and drink brands looking to sell to Amazon, as the real turning point for the business.

“Hayley gave me the

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Comcast RISE business grant winner shoots through an equity lens to support community

By Nina Huang
Northwest Asian Weekly

Melissa Ponder self portrait

Melissa Ponder has led a career dedicated to promoting equity and eliminating disparities—first in the education and nonprofit fields, and now through her photography.

Ponder is a Korean American army brat. She was born near her father’s hometown in southern Missouri and moved around with her family growing up. Her mother was one of the first Korean wives of the U.S. GIs. Their family had lived in air bases in Missouri, South Korea, and Germany.

Given her unique childhood and experiencing inclusivity and cross-cultural communications, she’s able to see things through an equity lens.

Ponder used to work in education, including conducting equity diversity training. She has also worked for International Community Health Services in program management, serving diverse populations to reduce diabetes disparities.

She made the pivot from the education and nonprofit sector to pursuing her hobby of photography.

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Amazon tops a list of companies to ditch in support of immigrants’ human rights

This commentary originally appeared in Source NM.

Throughout the last year, the Amazon corporation has given American consumers plenty of reasons to question whether we should be using its products and services. The news is filled with horrible stories about Amazon’s treatment of their workers. The company has an astronomical carbon footprint. The billionaire CEO has so much superfluous income he was able to launch himself into the atmosphere in the midst of a global pandemic. 

One aspect of Amazon’s business that rarely makes the news is how richly it profits off of our government’s terrorization of immigrants. The Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee recently published a divestment list that listed 60 publicly traded companies that profit significantly off of the surveillance and criminalization of immigrant communities and the militarization of the border.

Amazon is at the top of that list.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR

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Mediums Collective and Other BIPOC Businesses in Pierce and King Counties Feel the Support of Comcast RISE Program

Last month, 100 local businesses owned by people of color in King and Pierce Counties
found out that they would receive a total of $1 million in grants through the
Comcast RISE program, and recipients like Mediums
Collective
are very thankful.  

Comcast RISE
Mediums Collective streetwear brand started with hoodies, and t-shirts initially, as they expanded into different textiles, and the higher-end products seen today. Photo courtesy: Mediums Collective

Brothers Roger and Cesar Maldonado launched their Mediums Collective streetwear brand in 2014 with hoodies and t-shirts initially, as they expanded into different textiles and the higher-end products seen today. The duo has worked tirelessly to get their brand out there and extend market reach, selling both online, at pop-up events, and in area stores like the Locals in Tacoma.

Relying on major trade shows, seasonal
events, and pop-ups to market their clothing meant that when everything was
shut down in the

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