Urban Strategies, Inc.

09/01/2026

Applications are now open for the USI CDFI Business Bootcamp & Challenge, powered by Wells Fargo!

Entrepreneurs from Norfolk, St. Louis, Sacramento, and Baltimore will build their skills through the Business Bootcamp, then put what they’ve learned into action during the Pitch Challenge.

$200,000 in total prizes. One entrepreneur from each city will win up to $50,000.

LEARN practical tools and insights to strengthen your business.
BUILD your strategy, sharpen your skills, and prepare for growth.
PITCH your business and compete for a share of $200,000.

Applications are now open! Ready to take your business to the next level? Apply today!
Apply: bit.ly/USICDFI50k

08/31/2026

Urban Strategies, Inc. is proud to see FOX 2 highlight the work of USI CDFI and our continued commitment to creating pathways to capital, resources, and opportunity for emerging entrepreneurs.

Through the Business Bootcamp & Pitch Challenge, powered by Wells Fargo, entrepreneurs in St. Louis, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Sacramento will gain access to business development, technical assistance, and tools designed to help strengthen their businesses for long-term growth.

The experience will culminate in a Pitch Challenge, with one entrepreneur in each city receiving up to $50,000 in capital. ($200,000 invested across four communities.)

For USI, this work is about more than a pitch. It’s about helping entrepreneurs build stronger businesses, create opportunity, and contribute to thriving communities.

See the FOX 2 story: https://fox2now.com/video/usi-cdfi-bootcamp/12115216/

Applications are now open!
Learn more and apply: bit.ly/USICDFI50k

For more information, visit usi-cdfi.org

08/22/2026

Community transformation doesn’t happen from a distance. It happens when USI brings the right partners to the table, helps a resident navigate a barrier, connects a young person to an opportunity, or makes sure a family has the support they need to keep moving forward.

Across USI communities nationwide, our teams are doing this work every day. They are building relationships with families, coordinating resources, creating and strengthening partnerships, using data to understand where gaps remain, and working alongside residents to create pathways to stability and economic mobility. There is no single program, resource, or solution that transforms a community. It takes people committed to doing the work, together.

That’s what USI brings to communities, every day.

06/16/2026

Join us tomorrow for our final webinar in the Investing in Places, Investing in People series! Mixed-Income Communities: Opportunities, Tensions, and the Future of Place-Based Investment will be hosted tomorrow from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CST.

Register now: bit.ly/4tg5WXj

06/15/2026

Youth are the future of our world. We know that mentoring youth, especially young men, provides positive outcomes like drug and alcohol avoidance, less juvenile justice issues, low truancy, and higher academic achievement.

That is why this Saturday, USI was a proud sponsor of the Eta Boule Foundation's "Salute to Fathers and Mentors" benefit concert to support young, Black men in St. Louis.

Read more about our work in supporting young men: https://usi-inc.org/2022/04/06/mentoring-young-men-how-the-usi-miami-team-is-creating-pathways-for-violence-prevention/

06/10/2026

This week we joined with resident leaders and strategic partners to co-create a playbook around systems change. This playbook is rooted in lived experience and centered on dignity, safety, stability, opportunity, and belonging. We shared barriers and solutions across housing, economic mobility, and education, focusing on long-term change that improves whole systems and shifts power to the greater communities we collectively serve.

Thank you to resident leaders, cross-sector partners, the City of Norfolk Government, RahJazz, and Wells Fargo, and all who were able to join us in this urgent work.

06/09/2026

This is what powerful, philanthropic partnership looks like impacting not just the lives of individuals, but infusing the power needed for economic development to reach every community.

Read our official press release to understand how this Wells Fargo powered challenge will impact families:

Urban Strategies Inc. (USI) is advancing efforts to expand economic mobility, entrepreneurship, and community wealth building through a new initiative supported by a $1.2 million grant from Wells Fargo.

06/08/2026

This week, we’re answering the call by convening partners across the nation to co-create urgent steps that build on our collective future. This convening is about driving what comes next.

We’re meeting in the City of Norfolk Government for this powerful moment. Norfolk is more than a host, it is a living reflection of what becomes possible when community is centered, protected, and allowed to lead.

Together, we carry a shared understanding that fragmented approaches across housing, education, economic mobility, and community development have left too many behind. That’s why we are so grateful for Wells Fargo and their belief in our vision.

At this convening, we will honor what is working, challenge what no longer serves, and co-create ideas that can build our collective future—pathways rooted in dignity and designed for lasting, generational change.

06/04/2026

In two weeks, we will host the final webinar in our Investing in Places, Investing in People series! This upcoming webinar, Mixed-Income Communities: Opportunities, Tensions, and the Future of Place-Based Investment, will be hosted on June 17, 2026, from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CST.

Mixed-income communities have long been positioned as a transformative strategy for neighborhood revitalization, promising economic assimilation, improved outcomes, and shared prosperity. But do mixed-income communities truly deliver on their promise?

This forward-looking webinar confronts both the potential and the complexity of mixed-income development. We will explore what decades of research tell us about economic mobility, social cohesion, displacement, and long-term neighborhood outcomes. Just as importantly, we will examine the tensions that continue to shape this work.

➡️ Register now: bit.ly/4tg5WXj

06/01/2026

Thank you so much to the for awarding the CARE Award to our leader of the USI Columbus team, Tifani Kendrick!

This award to Tifani is well-deserved, recognizing her outstanding work with Columbus CARE and her leadership around trauma-informed care. USI is honored to have her on our team and celebrate this incredible accomplishment with her.