The 1937 Group, Illinois’ first minority-owned and vertically-integrated cannabis company, is starting the new year strong. The group is launching an incubator program to help qualified community members apply for a social equity license. This comes shortly after the state announced it will award fifty-five conditional social equity licenses in 2023.
What’s in store for prospective license holders? The group’s cannabis incubator will provide resources and assistance from The 1937 Foundation and Parkway Dispensary. Participants will get help with business formation, legal templates, documentation review, dispensary site selection, standard operating procedures, investor connections, marketing, and supply chain strategy.
“Currently, just 2 percent of current Illinois dispensaries are majority BIPOC owned. This statistic is more than just disheartening – it’s disgraceful,” says Ambrose Jackson, CEO of The 1937 Group, adding that the state has already raked in more than $3 billion in recreational sales with barely any minority representation. “As a leading minority-owned cannabis company, our mission is to help change this paradigm and drive the betterment of our communities through representation and ownership in this privileged, corporate-dominated industry.”
The state will start accepting applications for the fifty-five conditional dispensary licenses on Monday, January 30th, 2023, and will distribute them across seventeen Bureau of Labor Statistics regions.
To kickstart the social equity application process, The 1937 Group will be hosting a free webinar on January 4th.
