District leaders celebrate strides in local and minority business contracting
Through the D.C. Community Anchor Partnership, 17 major institutions have spent more than $1.5 billion with D.C.-based businesses, including nearly $1 billion with minority-owned firms. The initiative’s leaders say it is reshaping how large institutions approach contracting by connecting them with local businesses and building capacity for long-term growth. The post District leaders celebrate strides in local and minority business contracting appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
Black News 
By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
The Coalition, a nonprofit that works to advance equitable community and economic development, and Mayor Muriel Bowser gathered on June 1 to celebrate strides in local and minority business contracting. Through the D.C. Community Anchor Partnership (DCAP), 17 large institutions in the District have now spent more than $1.5 billion with D.C.-based businesses, including almost $1 billion for minority-owned businesses.
DCAP was started in 2017 after The Coalition discovered that less than 3 percent of the billions of dollars District hospitals and universities spend each year was being directed to local, small businesses.
“We believed that could change,” said Stephen Glaude, president and CEO of The Coalition, formerly the Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED). “We believed that institutions could change the way they do business and that if local businesses were given the opportunity and the support to compete, institutional procurement could be an engine for local job creation, income generation and economic mobility.”
Today, DCAP is a collaborative of 17 local anchor institutions, comprising hospitals, universities and utility companies. The initiative tracks institutional procurement data, facilitates strategic match-making and supports local, small businesses with technical assistance to streamline their access to contracting opportunities.
Genell Anderson, owner of D.C.-based architecture and civil engineering firm AMAR Group, was introduced to DCAP in 2022 and was quickly encouraged to apply for a master service agreement with Children’s National Hospital. Though hesitant at first, Anderson ultimately went for it and landed a three-year contract with the health system.
She’s now working on finalizing a second, three-year contract.
“I think DCAP’s philosophy is to get excellence in the door, and we take it from there,” said Anderson. “When we reached a roadblock with insurance, DCAP stepped in. When we wanted to spread our wings, they created a vendor fair with 20 incredible organizations.”
DCAP has not only shown small businesses what’s possible when contracting is intentional—it has also demonstrated to anchor institutions that small firms can successfully handle large-scale projects.
“What DCAP has done so effectively is help bridge some gaps, creating not only a powerful matchmaking environment between local businesses and anchor institutions, but also helping small businesses build the capacity and capabilities to compete for and deliver on large-scale contracts,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, president and CEO of Children’s National Hospital. “Along the way, this partnership has challenged us to rethink our own assumptions about what’s possible, about who is ready and about the strength of our local and minority-owned businesses.”
Through DCAP, Children’s National secured a local, minority-owned facilities management company to oversee cleaning services across all of its campuses—an opportunity Riley-Brown said likely would not have materialized otherwise.
In light of sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, the D.C. region lost an estimated 72,000 jobs in 2025, according to the D.C. Office of Revenue Analysis (ORA). Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested that employment challenges brought on by the federal downsizing require an all-hands-on deck approach.
For her, programs like DCAP present pathways forward.
“It requires all of us to think about how we will replace those jobs with more good-paying jobs. When we do that, we will ensure that we have a robust downtown because new companies are coming in and hiring D.C. residents,” said Bowser.
“We will ensure that we have growing schools because families are moving into our neighborhoods and choosing D.C. Public Schools. We will ensure that our residents are increasing their own personal wealth because people are buying housing and making sure that we have a strong housing market,” she continued. “We will ensure that our universities attract great students because they want to live in a vibrant city. All of those things are important and it takes small business and big business to help lead those efforts.”
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