Washington pays call on Over-the-Rhine

At Mortar’s Over-the-Rhine space, one of the nonprofit’s founders. Allen Woods. told Contreras-Sweet about the importance of identifying entrepreneurs in urban areas who – with coaching – could lead viable enterprises. The nonprofit’s 10-week program provides entrepreneurs access to mentors from SBA resource partner SCORE. Woods said building up this capacity of entrepreneurs in neighborhoods, especially in OTR, is critical to their long-term health. He said potential business owners have often heard they can’t launch a business, but he said the support of entities like Mortar is very important. “We want to be able to tell them yes, you can do it,” Woods said.