Zora’s House Celebrates $300,000 Campus Partners Grant
MEDIA CONTACT:
J’Hanna The Great
jhanna@zorashouse.com
202 413 7815
Funds enable leadership incubator to help more women in new space
[Columbus, OH] November 2, 2022 - A $6.5 million capital campaign to expand Zora’s House in Weinland Park has moved closer to reality with a $300,000 grant from Campus Partners. The pioneering coworking space and leadership incubator is building a 10,000-square-foot operations and community center at the corner of North 4th Street and East 8th Avenue. This will allow Zora's House to continue growing the work it began in 2018 as Ohio’s first and only initiative of its kind dedicated to the social, cultural and economic empowerment of women of color.
Campus Partners has been a supporter from the beginning, when Zora’s House Founder and CEO LC Johnson and her husband acquired a vacant lot from the nonprofit neighborhood developer in 2016 with a goal of closing racial and gender gaps and to lift up all women of color.
“We live at the intersection of two marginalized identities. That of being a woman and a person of color. We face unique challenges that aren't an issue for other people. We are building a dedicated space with the sole purpose of ensuring that women of color thrive.” said LC Johnson, Founder and CEO of Zora’s House.
“Zora’s House is an important and powerful resource in continuing the upward trajectory of Weinland Park as a national model for diverse, mixed-income communities,” said Amanda Hoffsis, Campus Partners CEO. “Campus Partners believes in the work Zora’s House is leading in the community as a center for helping women of color access resources and opportunities they need to thrive.”
The vision for Zora’s House stems from its namesake, Zora Neale Hurston, an author and activist who embodied creative resistance as she portrayed Black culture and heritage in her writings and her prominent persona as a fixture in the Harlem Renaissance. The truth-telling that Hurston embodied is represented by the Zora’s House mantra: Sisterhood. Support. Solidarity.
The Campus Partners grant helps to move Zora‘s House forward on a clear path to sustainability. The new facility will include a cooperatively owned café and childcare center, along with its trademark coworking space, subsidized office space and an expanded residential incubator program for women and non-binary entrepreneurs of color to bring their creative and community projects to life.
The revenue-generation capacity of the new location will enable Zora’s House to increase its programming by 150 percent over three years while moving its budget to a larger share of earned income and less reliance on grant support.
Expansion of Zora’s House and its mission are critical to continuing the successful transition of the historic Weinland Park neighborhood east of the OSU campus from a once-neglected low-income area to a thriving and diverse mixed-income community with an emphasis on keeping existing long-term residents in their homes.
As a gathering space and community partner, Zora’s House will be well positioned to fill many residents’ social and programming needs. Specifically, 45 percent of Weinland Park residents are people of color and nearly half are women.
Zora’s House has helped more than 3,000 women of color connect with health resources, deal with job losses, learn leadership skills and launch new businesses. In just the last year, the Her Way business builder program of Zora’s House helped more than 30 women of color start new profitable enterprises.
In its expanded location, Zora’s House will be able to offer women of color owned startups with commercial and event space to launch their businesses at half the current market rates. The four Women of Color Owned (WoCO) Markets already organized and hosted by Zora’s House have brought in more than $75,000 for women of color operators. The Campus Partners grant adds to more than $1.3 million in support already pledged for the Zora’s House expanded footprint and programming growth.