Growing Houston innovation hub announces new workforce partnership

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The Ion has implemented a new program that will spark workforce development in Houston. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Houston's The Ion announced this week that it will partner with New York-based Per Scholas as its new workforce development partner.

The partnership is part of the Ion District's Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that was approved by Houston City Council in late 2021. The $15.3 million agreement aimed to ensure that the 12-block innovation hub developed by Rice University, which is home to the Ion, would benefit all Houstonians, expanding tech jobs while also committing to preserving affordable housing and creating opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses.

Per Scholas was founded in 1995 and works to advance economic mobility for individuals through its tuition-free training programs, which focus on in-demand tech skills. According to the company, more than 80 percent of those who complete Per Scholas training programs find full-time employment within a year of graduating, and about 85 percent of Per Scholas graduates are people of color.

“Per Scholas is thrilled to join the Ion District and offer our tuition-free tech skills training in Houston,” Plinio Ayala, president and CEO of Per Scholas, said in a statement. “There is such synergy in our approach to innovation and equity. I’m confident that together, we’ll increase opportunity and unlock potential for both individuals and companies that call Houston home."

Per Scholas currently has a campus in downtown Dallas and virtual operations in Houston. It operates out of 20 locations in the U.S.

In addition to announcing the new partnership, the Ion District also released an update on its CBA one year after its launch.

“We’re committed to making Ion District and Ion a catalyst for opportunity, not just for the tech community but city-wide,” Sam Dike, who oversees the CBA’s implementation, said in a statement. “We are proud of the progress thus far. It’s a testament to the community stakeholders who came together to recommend the greatest areas of impact and need. However, this is just the beginning.”

According to the announcement, Ion District is now home to more than 300 businesses. In the next year, the district aims to continue to implement the inclusive hiring, community building, housing affordability and other practices outlined in the CBA.

The organization outlined a few accomplishments in the statement, including:

  • Escrowing $5 million at Unity National Bank, the only certified Minority Depository Institution (MDI) in Texas
  • Contracting opportunities for Ion District Garage, worth $16.9 million, to 19 minority- and women-owned businesses
  • Investing in women and minority tech accelerator and innovation programs, including three DivInc accelerator cohorts
  • Commencing first year of funding for selected housing counseling providers which were: Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Houston Area Urban League and Tejano Center for Community Concerns, to serve the Third Ward, Kashmere Gardens, and Magnolia Park neighborhoods
  • Opening multiple local restaurants at the Ion and in the Ion District that are owned and operated by minority and women chefs and operators
  • Selecting a consulting firm to recommend strategic pathways to achieve MWBE objectives
  • Conducting 10 public outreach events with over 500 minority- and women-owned firms attending
  • Hosting over 130 community-focused events, including Activation Festival, BlackStreet, and additional monthly programming and events accessible to the community

Earlier this month The Ion announced 10 new tenants that were either relocating or expanding their presence in Houston, bringing the total space leased to 86 percent, according to a news release.

When access to a location is the difference between financial success and failure, cooperation from the community might be the right move to prevent costly conflicts. Pexels

Rice University research: Collaboration with the community can be key to success

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In Pittsburgh, a coalition of 100 community groups brokered a deal with developers of the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team for $8.3 million in neighborhood improvements. In Oakland, California, developers of an $800 million high-tech complex promised local residents 50 percent of its construction jobs. And in Chicago, the Obama Presidential Center is working with residents to shield them from skyrocketing rents.

Community Benefits Agreements, or CBAS, as these agreements are called, are increasingly common between businesses and the places where they want to set up shop. But are they worth the money? To find out, Rice Business professor Kate Odziemkowska joined Sinziana Dorobantu of New York University to analyze market reactions to 148 CBA announcements between indigenous communities and mining firms in Canada. The financial value of these agreements, the researchers found, was real.

While it's easy to imagine that CBAs are just costly giveaways, they're more than goodwill gestures. Instead, they are legally enforceable contracts to distribute benefits from a new project and to govern the response to any potential social and environmental disruptions. For businesses, the researchers found, they are also good strategy, because they prevent costly, drawn-out conflict.

To conduct their research, Odziemkowska and Dorobantu analyzed a sample of 148 legally binding CBAs signed in Canada between mining firms and indigenous communities between 1999 and 2013. In Canada, mining companies and indigenous communities often hammer out agreements about extraction and use of local resources. Studying only the mining sector let the researches control for the economic variations that characterize different industries.

Since CBA negotiations cannot be disclosed, the announcement of such agreements represents new market information. To conduct their study, the researchers tracked the market reaction to these announcements, using a technique that measured short-term returns.

Creating CBAs from the start, they found, can head off catastrophic costs later. That's because even when a company has disproportionate economic strength, the public relations, legal and economic costs of community conflict can be draining. Consider the 1,900-kilometer Dakota Access oil pipeline, whose developers faced six months of round-the-clock protests that included nearly 15,000 volunteers from around the world. The drumbeat of litigation and negative news coverage still continues today.

In general, the researchers found, the more experience a community has with protests or blockades, the more firms gained from signing a CBA. Property rights protections also provide strong incentive for making a deal. Mining companies, for example, need access to land to do business. Communities with robust property rights to the resource or location sought by the firm have strong standing to stop that firm if they don't make a deal.

Because access to valuable resources like land or intellectual property can mean the difference between financial success or failure, Odziemkowska and Dorobantu said, the lesson from their findings extends far beyond Canadian mines. It's a lesson Disney learned the hard way when it failed to acknowledge the culture of Norway's Sami people in "Frozen." Assailed for cultural appropriation by using, but not crediting, traditional Sami music, Disney quickly made amends. After negotiating with the Sami people, Disney pledged to consult with them and portray them thoughtfully in the film's sequel.

The deal may have cost Disney on the front end, but it was nothing compared to the advantage of freezing out years of bad press.

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This story originally ran on Rice Business Wisdom. It's based on research by Kate Odziemkowska, an assistant professor of Strategic Management at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business.

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Houston mental health nonprofit expands platform statewide to connect more Texans with care

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As mental health conversations evolve, the necessary pivot becomes how organizations across Texas navigate improved ways to help people access the care they need before their challenges become crises.

That’s why Mental Health America of Greater Houston recently announced that it is expanding its Care Connect platform statewide.

The expansion will address perhaps the most persistent barrier to behavioral healthcare—helping people find and navigate services that already exist.

Care Connect’s extended reach comes at a time when more than 3.5 million adults in the state live with some kind of mental health condition and scores of those in need continue to struggle with accessing care despite the growing awareness of mental health needs.

According to President and CEO Renae Vania Tomczak, Care Connect’s main goal was to remove as many obstacles as possible that Texans face when seeking mental health support.

“Care Connect was about a two-year planning process,” Tomczak says. “It really began with asking what challenges people in the Greater Houston Area were facing regarding mental health. It’s not just accessing care, but the difficulty in navigating the mental healthcare system.”

While provider shortages remain a challenge in some communities, Mental Health America of Greater Houston found that many individuals and families struggle simply to determine where to turn, how to identify the right provider and whether services are affordable.

“We wanted to make it easier for people who have questions, who may never have had a mental health challenge before, or they’re a caregiver for somebody who has a mental health issue,” Tomczak says. “We wanted to be the place that people can come to get their questions answered and be connected to care.”

Care Connect combines a vetted network of more than 1,000 providers and services across Texas with personalized navigation support.

Searches generate care results based on insurance coverage, language preferences, ZIP code and clinical specialties.

Additionally, one-on-one guidance and follow-up support are provided by bilingual resource specialists.

The platform also seeks to address affordability, one of the most significant barriers to mental healthcare access. Through participating providers, eligible individuals can receive six to eight counseling sessions at no cost.

“We have several providers who are willing to provide six to eight counseling sessions at no cost for people who do not have the means to pay for services themselves,” Tomczak says.

When provider matches are unavailable, the organization can connect individuals with master’s-level mental health professionals working under the supervision of licensed clinicians.

The statewide rollout builds on the platform’s early success in the Houston region, where it has helped thousands of individuals connect with mental health resources since launching last fall.

According to Tomczak, the decision to expand was driven in part by growing demand from outside the organization’s traditional service area.

“Last month we decided to take this program statewide,” she says. “It’s not just Houston that can use help in connecting to appropriate mental health services, but the whole state.”

The Care Connect program’s promotion through healthcare providers, community organizations and public-sector partners across Texas is now one of Mental Health America of Greater Houston’s top priorities.

Their goal is to create a stronger referral ecosystem that ultimately helps those who need access to mental health care more quickly.

To facilitate that, the organization has also added free mental health screenings to its website so that users will better identify any symptoms related to anxiety, depression and other conditions.

“Once they do that, then where do they go?” Tomczak says. “They’re not sure who to call and who can help them. At that point, we hope they’ll call us and talk to somebody live who can answer their questions and help them get started on the right path to improving their mental health.”

With eyes on the future, Tomczak believes public understanding of mental health has improved in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought new attention to the effects of stress, isolation and uncertainty.

“The more we talk about it and have the opportunity to share that mental health conditions are traceable, the better,” she says.

According to Tomczak, long-term, Care Connect aims to reduce roadblocks that exist between recognizing the need for help and receiving it.

Ultimately, Care Connect hopes to create a robustly connected behavioral health system that gives Texans the ability to access mental health services swiftly and with confidence.

“No one should have to navigate mental health challenges alone,” Tomczak adds. “Care Connect is here to help connect people with resources, services and answers to ensure they get the care they need to take the next step toward better mental health.”

ExxonMobil sets date to make Texas its legal HQ

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Energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. has set a date to move its legal headquarters to Texas.

The Spring-based company announced this week that the redomiciliation from New Jersey to Texas is expected to be effective July 1. Exxon's board of directors unanimously recommended redomiciling in the Lone Star State in March, and shareholders approved the move to Texas at the company’s annual meeting in May.

As part of the move, ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. will replace Exxon Mobil Corp. of New Jersey and become the publicly traded parent company. Exxon reports that its shares will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “XOM,” and that shareholders do not need to take action.

At the time of the recommendation, Exxon said the move would not affect business operations, management, strategy, assets or employee locations.

Exxon Chairman and CEO Darren Woods added that the redomiciliation was in part due to Texas' business-friendly environment and policies.

"Over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community. In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value,” Woods said in a news release. "Aligning our legal home with our operating home, in a state that understands our business and has a stake in the company’s success, is important.”

The Associated Press reports that about 30 percent of Exxon's employees work in Texas. Exxon's legal headquarters has been based in New Jersey since 1882, when it was Standard Oil Company.

Exxon moved its operational headquarters from Irving, Texas, to the Houston area in 2023.

Exxon was the highest-ranking Houston-area company on this year's Fortune 500 list, coming in at No. 9. Houston tied with Chicago for the second-most Fortune 500 headquarters on this year's list, with Texas leading the nation for the most Fortune 500 headquarters (57).

“Texas is the undisputed headquarters of headquarters,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release. “The world’s leading businesses invest with confidence in Texas because of our welcoming business climate, predictable regulatory environment, and skilled and growing workforce. People and businesses are choosing Texas because Texas works.”

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Axiom Space officially redomiciles its headquarters in Texas

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Axiom Space has claimed Houston as its operational home since 2016. And now it can call Texas its official legal headquarters, too.

The spacetech company, which is developing the first commercial space station, Axiom Station, has officially redomiciled its legal headquarters from Delaware to Texas, Axiom announced this week.

Axiom employs approximately 700 people, the majority of whom are in Texas, according to a news release. Its Assembly Integration and Test Facility was built as an anchor of the Houston Spaceport, and the company is also developing next-generation spacesuits at its Houston-based spacesuit lab.

“Texas has demonstrated, consistently and deliberately, that it wants innovative companies to thrive here and has built the policy and regulatory framework accordingly,” Jonathan Cirtain, CEO and president of Axiom Space, said in the release. “For Axiom Space, establishing Texas as both our operational and legal home puts us squarely in a state that understands our mission, supports our industry, and shares in what we are working to achieve.”

Axiom touts Texas's "financial and infrastructural commitments" to the space economy as reasons for the move, including programs and grants from organizations such as the Texas Space Exploration & Aeronautics Research Fund (SEARF), the Texas Space Commission, and the Texas A&M Space Institute.

Axiom was previously awarded a $5.5 million SEARF grant for the development of its orbital data center capabilities last year.

The news comes as energy giant ExxonMobil also announced concrete plans to redomicile its legal headquarters in Texas. Exxon's board of directors unanimously recommended redomiciling in the Lone Star State in March. The company announced this week that the move would become official July 1. The company's operational headquarters is based in Spring, Texas, a Houston-area suburb.

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