In 2023 and 2024, Catalyst Miami and South Florida Community Development Coalition convened local partner organizations to address, and define, an ecosystem that will better serve small businesses and small business owners in South Florida. This report highlights the context and results of the initiative.

Click here to download the report.

Small businesses in Miami-Dade County are facing an existential crisis.

Rising commercial rents, complex regulatory frameworks, limited access to capital, and the overwhelming presence of large corporate entities are placing unprecedented strain on local entrepreneurs. In neighborhoods across the County, small businesses—the economic and cultural lifeblood of their communities—are struggling to keep their doors open.

The challenges are clear, but so too are the opportunities to reshape the landscape and build a more resilient, equitable, and thriving small business ecosystem.

This report offers a detailed examination of both the challenges and the potential solutions, based on the input of forty small business owners and advocates from across the County, as well as a policy landscape scan of innovative practices from other cities.

Through structured interviews and focus groups, we have captured the lived experiences of business owners grappling with high rents, difficult leasing agreements, limited access to capital, and the unrelenting pressure of large corporate competition. The findings form the foundation of this report and are paired with actionable recommendations to address these pressing issues.

View a condensed scan of the policy recommendations here.

Click below to view the full, interactive report or download the pdf version here.

Catalyst Miami's North Miami Community Investment Cooperative work was featured in the Urban Land Institute's report on climate-prepared communities. The linked webinar here includes commentary from Ahmed Mori, Vice President of Community Economic Development of Catalyst Miami.

Report Summary: Climate change is changing conditions in communities worldwide, increasing incentives to live and work in some locations and decreasing incentives in others, causing ripple effects across global, national, and local markets. As people of all demographic groups gravitate toward areas with comparatively lower risk from climate effects (receiving communities), they will spur local economic growth and development. As a result, local governments of these receiving communities and private interests will be challenged to ensure such growth and development is inclusive and equitable and minimizes gentrification-driven displacement.

This report defines climate gentrification and describes its impacts on receiving communities. It communicates the value proposition of equitable, inclusive, and resilient development in these communities and outlines specific strategies to minimize climate gentrification–driven displacement.

Click here to download the report.

These oral histories were conducted by FIU students in collaboration with Catalyst Miami and include interviews documenting the experiences of Miami-Dade residents facing the county’s persistent economic inequality. Participants include community advocates, members of Catalyst Miami programs, and a local public official. The narrators describe the interconnection between the wealth gap and issues of housing, business ownership, and the digital divide.

The project includes a series of interviews with 12 community members in which they tell their stories of how they’ve been personally affected by one of the three focus areas. We work alongside these frontline community members to collectively shape our shared vision of Miami. Their stories showcase the current realities of our broken systems and offer community-based solutions.

Click here to listen to the full set of interviews from the Oral History Collection.

Below are some of the resources and additional media developed by the students during this project.

• Housing Resources
• Business Ownership in Miami
• Connecting Housing to the Wealth Gap
• The Digital Divide

Across the country, communities and workers are shifting decision-making power to neighborhood residents, students and teachers, workers and working class communities. They are demanding accountability to ensure governing institutions uphold everyones’ fundamental human rights.

Collaborative governance, also known as co-governance, is a collection of participatory models and practices in which government and communities work together (through formal and informal structures) to make collective policy decisions, co-create programs to meet community needs, and ensure those policies and programs are implemented effectively.

Race Forward and Partners for Dignity & Rights are excited to announce the release of a new report, Co-Governing Toward Multiracial Democracy, featuring powerful models of collaborative governance led by communities of color across the country.

The report illustrates it is possible to build power and give community members a say over their life decisions.This happens when organizations engage with government entities to change policy, establish a culture of justice, and center community participation.

Click here to view the complete report.

With contributions from Gretchen Beesing and Ahmed Mori, Catalyst Miami.

A study on savings funded by JPMorgan Chase that was conducted throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This exploratory study aims to help explain the causes of low-income individuals’ real-life savings behavior. Personality traits like someone's attitude towards risk, their ability to persevere, and their anxiety levels were found to affect how much risk low-income individuals were willing to take, which in turn impacted their ability to save and improve their financial standings.

Read the full report here.

In late 2020 / early 2021, Catalyst Miami surveyed small and microbusinesses across North Miami to find out what types of support they needed. We received responses from 102 business owners and aggregated the findings in this report. 

While the respondents expressed hope and optimism for the future, the survey results made clear that nonprofit and public providers of technical assistance need to do a better job of reaching small businesses. Businesses don't just want and need money—they also desire technical help with finances, marketing, networking, and other areas that contribute to business growth.

Read the report here. 

Know a small or microbusiness that could use support? Click here to learn about our free services and sign up for an appointment.

Catalyst Miami experimented with using financial apps to see if they help our clients save more money and create better financial habits. This report was prepared by the University of Miami.

Read the document here.

A report by Urban Land Institute (ULI) Tampa Bay for the City of St. Petersburg with a particular focus on economic development and social equity strategies. Addressing a changing environment in an equitable way is a challenge that all Tampa Bay communities must grapple with. This report is intended to be a helpful guide region-wide. Catalyst Miami was a contributor.

Read the document here.

A vision for equitable housing policy in south Florida communities and advocates fighting for dignified and sustainable housing for all.

Read the document here.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
In July 2019, over 75 Miami-Dade County residents represented their neighborhoods at the Miami Housing & Energy Justice Congress, where over 40 demands related to neighborhood development and energy justice were voiced. This kicked off a seven month revision process collecting public feedback through community meetings. As a result, the Housing Justice in the Face of Climate Change Report was collaboratively developed by over 200 Miami-Dade County residents and stakeholders.

At its core, the Miami Climate Alliance is a coalition of organizations and individuals working to prioritize climate justice in South Florida. The Miami Climate Alliance seeks to achieve equity in resilience by building urgency around community well-being, strengthening networks of community members and organizations, raising awareness of climate change and sea level rise as threats to all forms of justice, and directly supporting those working to implement solutions in frontline neighborhoods now.