Claima Stories — the podcast committed to telling stories about careers of BIPOC creatives– is putting its money where its mouth is!

Claima (which is short for “claim a seat at the table”) Stories has been committed to addressing the disparities of BIPOC-youth in creative industries. Now they have partnered with Vistaprint to provide $250,000 in funding to Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) behind small businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to information provided to AfroTech, when it comes to those creative industries, it has been estimated that during the pandemic, more than 2.7 million jobs were lost with an additional loss of over $150 billion in sales of goods and services for the industry nationwide. This represents nearly a third of all jobs within the creative industries which include art, fashion, film, sneakers, and more.

The multi-dimensional partnership is a part of 99 Days of Design, a 99designs by Vistaprint initiative that was created to empower 99 small businesses worldwide with not only financial support but design services as well.

In the collaboration, Claima Stories will select 12 BIPOC businesses and creatives who have been impacted by COVID-19 and they will receive $15,000 in cash along with a design makeover and marketing assets to support their business growth.

Bimma Williams, a 10-year-sneaker industry veteran and the host and co-founder of Claima Stories will sit alongside creative industry heavyweights to discuss firsthand accounts to provide insight on the lack of representation and limited access to opportunities for Black and Brown communities.

“It is a great honor to work with 99designs by Vistaprint for this initiative that aims to democratize access, funding, and design resources to equip and empower historically under-resourced BIPOC founders and creatives to be the next wave of creative frontrunners,” said Williams in an official press release.

Along with the grant, the 99designs by Vistaprint partnership will provide the Claima Stories team with resources to create a mobile podcast studio for a 30-day, four-city tour which will be sponsored exclusively by Vistaprint.

“Vistaprint and Claima Stories understand and appreciate the transformative power of design, and how great design can be a spark to provide inspiration or encouragement when and where it is needed most,” said Vistaprint CMO Ricky Engelberg in the statement “The team at Claima has built a truly impactful community and we’re thrilled to be partnering together to support these amazing small businesses and we can’t wait to hear all their stories from the Storytella trip.”

For more information on the partnership and for recent episodes of Claima Stories, click here.

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