Check out this interactive map of small businesses from Hopeworks and Comcast RISE

Want to support more small businesses? This new tool could make that easier across the country.

Tech education nonprofit Hopeworks collaborated with Comcast to create an interactive map of Comcast RISE small businesses.

RISE — that stands for representation, investment, strength and empowerment — started in 2020 as a way for Comcast to support business owners who were struggling due to the pandemic. The program offers support in the form of marketing consultations, media placements, production services, tech services and monetary grants, specifically to people of color and women founders.

The map sorts all of the Comcast RISE awardees by state and has a search bar to find the businesses closest to you. Each business is represented by a colored dot, with red representing support through a tech makeover, blue as marketing support, green for grant recipients and purple meaning multiple forms of support.

“Our hope is that this project creates ripples of positive impact for the young professionals who are developing their skills through on-the-job experience, for local organizations who will see the quality of work they can expect from Hopeworks, and for the Comcast RISE businesses who will have increased visibility and opportunities to earn new customers,” Hopeworks Executive Director Dan Rhoton told Technical.ly via email. “This map will also provide a valuable tool to Comcast’s passionate employees who want to patronize and promote Comcast RISE awardees in their local areas.”

The businesses are also sorted by type of award, by Comcast business region and by Effectv video advertising region. The map shows users the address and industry of each business. The site notes that November 2022 awardees will be added to the map in December.

Regan Yeldell, executive director of program management for Comcast RISE, said in a statement that through this map, “our teams and consumers alike can visually locate, support and promote the Comcast RISE recipients in their local areas.”

See the map

Luis Olivieri, geographic information systems director at Hopeworks and a previous RealLIST Engineer honoree, called Hopeworks and Comcast “longtime partners.” Hopeworks’ geographic information system team, including the young pros in the nonprofit’s training program, worked on the interactive map project with the telecommunications giant.

“Our organizations have a common goal — to make a positive impact in our region, increase digital equity, and support young professionals and entrepreneurs,” he said in a statement. “Through this ongoing partnership, we are able to achieve our goal and continue to provide support to those who need it.”

The GIS team started working on the map in August and launched in Nov. 15 — National Entrepreneurs’ Day.

Hopeworks recently announced it was expanding from Camden to a second space in North Philadelphia, a move that was supported by Comcast along with other sponsors and investors. The organization offers support and opportunities in the tech industry to young people between ages 16 and 27.

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.