Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark Community Economic Development Corporation Senior Vice President Al Qadr Camillo, and The Cayemitte Group President David Cayemitte will hold a press conference to seek public participation the 2019 Contractors Development Initiative Program on Friday, February 15, at 12:30 p.m., at NCEDC, located at 111 Mulberry Street, in downtown Newark. The program is now taking applications to participate in the initiative.
“Newark is experiencing a boom in development, and this initiative enables city-based small contractors to become part of this growth, become large contractors, and benefit from these economic gains,” said Mayor Baraka. “The previous program empowered 15 participants – this one will empower others, and have a ripple effect in creating a stronger Newark.”
The Contractors Development Initiative has been an integral part of Newark-based contractors building their capacity to scale. Providing locally-based businesses with the technical expertise and back office infrastructure is a vital component to creating wealthy businesses that lend to a healthy local economy. Newark CEDC has partnered with The Cayemitte Group, to launch CDI Cohort #2, through a grant awarded from Living Cities. With more than $4 billion in development projects underway, this program will go a long way in providing the knowledge based instructional learning needed for Newark-based firms.
Newark CDI teaches participants to: build or enhance their internal accounting system, understand how financial statements relate to operations, grasp principles of construction contract law and construction accounting, write business and strategic plans and budgets, create marketing material, address credit score deficiencies, work with basic construction documents, set up a Work in Progress Schedule and to prepare a successful bond application, prepare for and meet with lenders to secure capital.
Newark CDI consists of a mandatory 15 sessions designed to be a mixture of eight workshops, and seven one-on-one consultations, along with additional access to six sessions of webinars on QuickBooks instructions. This is a five-month program that will launch in mid- February and the participants will graduate in June. Participants must be Newark-based, fit the criteria to be MWBE certified, complete an application and go through an interview process.
The Newark CDI first cohort graduated 15 participants, of which three were bonded when the program started. Of the remaining 12 participants, six were bondable after graduation and an additional four were bondable up to 12-18 months afterwards.
To participate in this year’s program, send an e-mail to dgonzales@cayemittegroup.com<mailto:dgonzales@cayemittegroup.com> or call Dina Gonzales at (609) 521- 4207 or visit the website at http://www.newarkcedc.org/contractors_development_initiative_ii.
