Rooted Policy Labs | Savannah, GA

The Rooted Policy Lab: Keeping Black Businesses in Place — hosted by Kindred Futures and the Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce — produces Greater Savannah–specific, actionable policy and practice recommendations that protect legacy businesses and open pathways for new entrepreneurs to launch and grow storefronts. The lab brings together entrepreneurs, real estate developers, capital providers, policymakers, and advocates to improve commercial affordability, expand community ownership, build pathways from leasing to ownership, and strengthen local capacity to advance those solutions.

The Rooted Lab focuses on commercial corridors facing structural change — where public investment, zoning shifts, redevelopment, and infrastructure decisions are reshaping who can stay, who can launch, and who gets priced out. Revitalization that does not protect what is rooted, or make room for what is coming next, repeats the displacement patterns of the past.

Using localized data and real-time scenario modeling, the lab produces strategies with cross-sector stakeholders and culminates in a short policy brief with follow-up support to carry the work forward.

What participants take away

• First access to a new data dashboard tracking small business and commercial real estate trends across Savannah
• A co-developed brief capturing the policy and practice solutions that emerge from the lab
• A working network of business owners, capital partners, policymakers, and community advocates with shared language and aligned strategy

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.