Supplier Diversity Newsletter

Greetings Partners,

New OMWBE Certified Businesses

Every month we share a list of the most recent state certified businesses including the business name, contact information, business description, etc. This list is best utilized regularly in combination with OMWBE's Directory of Certified Businesses.

Please contact our Supplier Diversity team for assistance using our online directory, or to schedule a virtual training for your procurement team.

Email: supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov

Outreach Toolkit Workshop

Hopefully you have heard that DES’s Supplier Diversity Policy requires agencies to engage in outreach efforts. You might be wondering where to start, how to improve your efforts, and what the expectations are for your specific role in the purchasing process.

To quote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Don’t Panic! OMWBE is partnering with the Department of Enterprise Services to provide a workshop focusing on procurement-specific outreach (aka “targeted solicitation” and “targeted industry outreach”). We will go through purchasing step-by-step and discuss opportunities to reach out to businesses and make sure as many qualified bidders as possible are aware that you are buying something on behalf of the state.

Register for the workshop on March 16th:

Access Equity Update

Following the successful launch of the first phase of Access Equity, we are transitioning to start onboarding more state agencies and institutions of higher education in the coming months.

As part of the first step, we are reaching out to identify Access Equity Sponsors for each organization, who will be responsible for ushering their agency into Access Equity and implementing its various modules. Look toward upcoming newsletters for more news regarding further launch plans for Access Equity.

Happy Black History Month from the OMWBE Team!

As we celebrate, let’s take a quick look on why the month of February was chosen. February was designated as the month for celebrating, because it coincides with the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln. Many are unaware that 50 years earlier, a man named Carter G. Woodson, who was also known as “The father of Black History”, set out to commemorate Black culture and the Black past, designating the second week of February as “Negro History Week.”

Mr. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), which is known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in 1915, enlisting the help of fellow Black historians to help with educating students and encouraging coordinated teachings of Black History in public schools.

In 1976 then President, Gerald Ford first officially started to recognize Black History Month calling on the public to “Seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

The theme of 2023 Black History month is “Black Resistance.” The theme was chosen to bring awareness to the many racial inequalities, oppression and disadvantages African Americans have faced and fought against for so many years, and continue to fight against today.

Digging into Public Works Contracts - Thurston/Pierce

This agency training session will focus on public works contracting and bring the next level of public works training for local government agencies in Washington State. This training is hosted by The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) and the Washington Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).

MRSC and PTAC are working collaboratively to deliver targeted outreach, tools, technical assistance, and training to local governments and contractors.

Public Works Training Focus:

• How to create meaningful engagement with the contracting community
• Tools to start, refresh and/or maintain your public works program
• Tips and tools on how to get: more bids, better prices and higher inclusion participation
• Examples and samples: what your peers are doing
• Actionable steps to improve outcomes and practices in public works

Governor's Subcabinet on Business Diversity

The subcabinet is resuming meetings in April. Towards the end of 2022, we took a pause, slowing down to speed up, and worked on some foundational tasks—like establishing a new Subcabinet Charter, that will give members of the small and diverse business community the chance to participate and provide perspective. We will share the finished charter with subcabinet leaders soon, and are excited to include the community in this important work. Please stay tuned for more updates and a new schedule of subcabinet meetings in the coming months.

If you would like to include others on our distribution list to receive these monthly supplier diversity emails, please let us know at supplierdiversity@omwbe.wa.gov.