Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco has teamed up with a tech executive to start a charity fund called the Neighborhood Start-Up Fund, which supports entrepreneurs from working-class communities, Complex reports.
The idea is that aspiring entrepreneurs from these communities have great ideas that would improve conditions in their neighborboods, but they need the resources and the backing to get those ideas off the ground. The fund will offer selected entrepreneurs funding, networking opportunities, workshops and professional mentoring services.
The fund will start with one neighborhood at a time; first up is Brownsville, in New York City's borough of Brooklyn. One hundred aspiring entrepreneurs will be able to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges Nov. 13. Lupe has always been about community development and commits himself to social-justice issues, so this initiative is right up his alley.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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