In 2020, driven by a call to action by our board members, the Portland Metro Chamber developed a long-term strategy to study and redress historic economic inequities among Portland’s Black citizens.
Over two years, this work culminated in the creation and seed funding of a new, wholly independent organization, the Black Business Association of Oregon (BBAO). BBAO was designed as a Black-led organization, focused on quantifying the racial economic disparities in the state and then advocating for proven strategies to fix these inequities.
In November 2023, BBAO launched one of its defining projects: The Oregon Black Prosperity Dashboard.
The Oregon Black Prosperity Dashboard assembles key data to tell the socio-economic story of the state’s Black community—a story that is often lost in broader, population-wide reports on community outcomes. BBAO developed the dashboard to inform decision-makers, stakeholders, and the public as they consider changes to public systems, policies, and practices to support more broadly shared economic prosperity. The dashboard assesses community conditions across five domains: population, health, education, economic well-being, and business ownership.