Leonard Young, a Delaware native and Florida A&M mechanical engineering graduate, found that trying to locate African-American businesses and community organizations in Delaware was not easy. So, in the summer 2006, after years of interest in Web design and online activities, he started delawareblack.com, a resource for African-Americans looking for places to go and things to do, as well as a place to find and support black-owned businesses.
“I felt, for African-Americans, there weren’t a lot of resources out there about black-owned businesses, and if you didn’t have direct contact information for organizations, it would be hard to find them. We wanted to provide a central place that promoted those businesses and community events that would interest primarily African-Americans in Delaware.”
The mission for the Web site is to promote the growth of African-American businesses, organizations and events by providing people with a user-friendly resource with which to find that information. They provide an up-to-date calendar of events and promote the business directory with an e-mail newsletter every other Thursday that Young said is very popular with subscribers.
Businesses, organizations and individuals can sign up for advertising packages such as banner ads or the business directory. They also provide some Web design services for small businesses. Community and non-profit organizations, churches, fraternity and sororities can post their events for free in the community directory and events calendar, which provides information and resources about upcoming conferences, events, parties and fundraisers.
“It used to be that there was no one place to find out what was going on. Or you find out the day of or after the fact,” Young said. “I wanted to provide a resource so people would know well in advance of events because people would go Philadelphia or Washington and not know that we have the same kind of events here.”
Young said he is confident that the site will grow, and that people and businesses alike will see it as both an effective marketing tool and a community resource.
“A lot of our advertisers have responded that they did get business from the site. And the updated e-mail newsletter is popular with subscribers. I just had a Realtor call and say she got her first client, so that is always good to hear.”
For more information, call (302) 378-6576 or visit online at www.delawareblack.com.