{"id":48026,"date":"2024-07-23T15:15:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=48026"},"modified":"2024-07-23T15:16:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:16:38","slug":"the-well-helps-entrepreneurs-while-bringing-economic-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/07\/23\/the-well-helps-entrepreneurs-while-bringing-economic-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Well helps entrepreneurs while bringing economic activity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artist and instructor Kent McAllister has been painting for more than two decades; however, getting his artwork noticed has been a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult for an African American artist to get any kind of exposure,\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, McAllister\u2019s art career took off. He painted his very first mural and consequently sold more than 70 pieces since being connected to The Well business center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have given me exposure; they gave me networking power. They gave me opportunities that I probably would not have received by meeting people right here in this building,\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located in Lakeland’s underserved midtown neighborhood, The Well helps residents start or grow their businesses, with an emphasis on businesses owned by people of color, women, and veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor minority businesses and Black-owned businesses, capital is one of the largest barriers. We host a variety of workshops, seminars, trainings, and connections with banks that support small business development,\u201d said Dr. Sallie Stone, founder and CEO of The Well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency project, part of the goal is to revitalize the blighted area, bringing jobs and economic activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The talent is there, but the pipeline may have some barriers. We want to remove those barriers so that those who have ideas can move forward and then reach back and help someone else,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist and instructor Kent McAllister has been painting for more than two decades; however, getting his artwork noticed has been a challenge. \u201cIt\u2019s been very difficult for an African American… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":48027,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the-well.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[9199],"class_list":["post-48026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-the-well-helps-entrepreneurs-while-bringing-economic-activity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48026"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48029,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48026\/revisions\/48029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}