Last year, DelDOT’s Office of Civil Rights, which houses the Department’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, had a highly successful campaign to connect prime highway contractors with DBE contractors and suppliers. Following networking opportunities in all three counties over the course of three months, the campaign wrapped up with a well-attended DBE & Small Business Summit in the fall.

Earlier this month, the Director of the Office of Civil Rights and the DBE program administrator joined the Department’s leadership team at DCA’s quarterly DelDOT Liaison Committee meeting sharing their plans to continue the effort this year. This week, I received a flyer for this campaign from DCA member, Marcella Saborio, Qua Marketing, sharing the dates and focus of four events in support of strengthening the relationship and expanding opportunities between prime contractors and registered DBE contractors and suppliers. Below are the dates and focus of this year’s events:

Professional Service – July 25^th 4-7 pm at DelDOT Dover Offices
Construction Services – August 8^th 4-7 pm at DelDOT Dover Offices
Social Mixer – September 26^th 4:30 – 7:30 pm at Mulligans
Annual DBE Summit – November 7^th

DCA’s members had a strong presence at each of the 2023 DBE networking events as well as the fall DBE and Small Business Summit. Several of DCA’s highway contractors enhanced the impact of DelDOT’s effort through holding their own open house events introducing DBE participants to their companies. This level of commitment to connecting with the DBE contractor and supplier community was a big part of the campaign’s success and our members’ participation this year will be critical in continuing to build on that success.