National Urban League

Our mission is to help African Americans and others in underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power, and civil rights. The League promotes economic empowerment through education and job training, housing and community development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, health, and quality of life.

Joseph Ruffin, CEO of Network Design Technologies, a company that supports many aspects of IT and networking infrastructure for schools, corporations, medical, mass transit facilities, retail stores, churches and municipalities, has been a client of the Urban League of Philadelphia (ULP) Entrepreneurship Center since 2011. His business continues to grow and flourish with the continued assistance and support from Keith Ellison, Entrepreneurship Center Director and the ULP EC team, who were instrumental in the firm receiving its 8A Certification. Mr. Ruffin recently secured three contracts totaling $400,000 with Comcast, CommWorks, and Granite Telecom to provide fiber optic cabling services for residents and businesses.

Jacqueline Williams is the CEO of 1931 Bridal. She has been in the wedding industry since 2003 as a florist, and later grew to include wedding planning and jeweled bouquets. Last summer, Jacqueline opened the first Black-owned bridal shop in Hyde Park, IL. In her store, she features young black designers and showcases their work. Jacqueline has been a Chicago Urban League Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation client since 2018, having graduated from the nextStartup cohort that fall. Jacqueline stated, “The Chicago Urban League has assisted me with solid business and marketing information from the nextStartup program. They provided me with access to capital funders, and connections with like-minded business owners”.