BizfFed Institute President Kevin G. Harbour, Sr. (Courtesy Photo)

BizFed Institute President Kevin G. Harbour, Sr. is calling the community to come out to their Workforce Forum in February.

“We can wait for someone to save us, but we’ve got to be who we’re waiting for,” said Kevin G. Harbour, Sr. president of BizFed Institute.

He spoke to the Sentinel recently about BizFed Institute’s upcoming Workforce Forum on Thursday, Feb. 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the UCLA Extension Gayley Center.

“We did this last year as a proven concept and it went very well,” said Harbour. “We convened it at UCLA and people came out and we have heavy participation and focus from organizations like the Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corp., the L.A. Urban league and various other organizations that have the same focus that we do.”

Harbour grew up in Los Angeles in Leimert Park. He attended Loyola High School and UCLA. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi and past president of UCLA Black Alumni. Harbour has about 30 years in IT with a telecom background and worked as the director of corporate strategic partnerships for UCLA Alumni and was the inaugural chair for the L.A. Region of the Steering Committee for California Jobs First.

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He spent the last eight years starting off as the chief development officer for BizFed and then the last five-and-one-half years as the president of Bizfed Institute, which is the 501c3 think-tank of BizFed, BizFed Pac, BizFed Central Valley and BizFed Institute.

“We convene forums on issues that affect the regional economy,” said Harbour. “We bring together business leaders and stakeholders to have a discussion around opportunities and issues in the hopes that it results in collaboration, sharing in resources and then we either elevate what’s working in our regional economy or to figure out solutions through either public policy, advocacy or forming coalitions.”

“The workforce development forum is to get our population up-skilled,” said Kevin G. Harbour, Sr. (Courtesy Photo)

He shared how BizFed Institute has addressed issues in the past such as the digital divide, housing and water accessibility.

“We were one of the primary players in mobilizing the Greater Los Angeles community to bring focus on different communities and populations that did not have broadband access,” said Harbour.

“There were digital literacy issues and then, there were financial issues and then on top of all that, there were broadband bandwidth issues so, the whole family would be in two different rooms on a computer and they could never stay online.”

He continued, “Another one would be housing—we’ve been working in that space for the last five years minimum partnering with Milken Institute to identify solutions to address affordability, to address transitional housing for the homeless and then also to bring together all the moving parts that happen in development, engineering architecture, the developers, the general contractors to get together to figure out how do we deal with this.

“When COVID hit, then it became a goods movement issue in terms of getting raw materials and we brought in different organizations, some that were nonprofit like SOLA Impact and SDF Capital and we were able to identify these folks and get them to share how they were able to build a unit for $250,000 when everyone else, it was costing them 5 to $600,000.

“In these discussions we talked about permit pulling and how to streamline the process, CEQA, the California Environmental Quality act and the environmental impact reports that could add up to 20% on the bottom line.

“Water resiliency — you know we’re a semi-arid environment? Bringing together all the water agencies and partnering with L.A. County Metropolitan Water District to figure out how to conserve, how to use technology to capture water whether it be desalination, whether it be capture out of the air, whether it be improving our delivery systems to keep our water aquifers replenished.”

Harbour is looking forward to the workforce development forum and is looking for the community to come out. He shared that this event is for anyone who is ready to start a career, and this is where that will happen.

“The workforce development forum is to get our population up skilled,” said Harbour. “We’ve identified academic institutions and other nonprofits who are willing to train the workforce and make sure that the training has the curriculum that the businesses need so, that when that person walks into the interview, they’re qualified.

“The whole idea is to find folks that are self-motivated to better themselves, we provide them trainings, we bring the companies in after educating them on what this program is all about and then we married them or should I say, we create a prom with the career fair.

“They come together, they meet each other, they have their resumes, they find out they’re qualified, people get hired.”

Harbour also shared another important topic BizFed Institute is bringing focus to — AI or artificial intelligence. He shared instead of being afraid of the technology, businesses need to be learning how to make it work for them.

“Everybody’s afraid of AI, but if you learn AI, as a small business owner and as a career-minded professional, now you have a tool that will elevate your thinking and also expand your ability to go beyond a brick-and-mortar walk-in business.

“Globally speaking, China has the highest number of emerging millionaires in small business because they’re leveraging digital assets.”

Harbour is inviting the South Los Angeles community to BizFed Institute’s Workforce Forum on Thursday, Feb. 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the UCLA Gayley Extension Center. He shared that this is where generational wealth begins.

“We got to get folks trained and then we go to bat for them saying, ‘Here is a qualified pool of applicants, who will be seeking thriving careers’ and if we’re successful, these folks will be buying their houses, these folks will get jobs and careers and in three to five years, at least 20% we hope, will spin out and start their own business and these businesses will form anchor businesses in some of these traditional neighborhoods that are changing demographics,” said Harbour.

“I grew up in Leimert Park — only half of my children would be able to buy back in the neighborhood that their grandparents bought in because those homes are $1,000,000 now.”

For more information on BizFed Institute, visit bizfedinstitute.org.