Booz & Company continues to build on its efforts to boost small businesses in economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City.

The firm recently partnered with the William J. Clinton Foundation and NYU Stern School of Business to launch the Harlem Restaurant Program, which provides professional development opportunities to established restaurateurs in Harlem, enabling them to deliver improved products and services to their customers.

The Harlem Restaurant Program is the latest effort for the three partners. This eight-month project will feature speakers and discussions focused on the critical components of leading a restaurant. The goal is to help Harlem restaurateurs better understand their industry, better address the specific issues and challenges they face on a daily basis, and become better leaders within their company.

Over the past several months, Clinton Foundation staff, Booz & Company consultants, and NYU business school students have conducted an in-depth assessment of the Harlem restaurant sector, analyzed regional and national industry trends and best practices, and developed a number of business improvement tools for program participants.

“This exciting new initiative offers world class consulting resources at no cost to the Harlem restaurant community,” said Karl Kellner, Booz & Company Partner. “We hope to give a boost to the restaurants that help define the unique character of Harlem."

Since 2002, Booz & Company has partnered with NYU Stern School of Business and the William J. Clinton Foundation to provide grassroots consulting advice to small business in economically-disadvantaged areas of New York City. This effort, known as the Urban Enterprise Initiative (UEI), was founded by Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Partner Reggie Van Lee, who launched the initiative with President Clinton and his Foundation. Kellner has led the initiative since 2005.

Over the past six years, more than 200 Booz & Company volunteers have provided strategic advice to small, minority-owned businesses across New York, in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Booz & Company has funneled tens of thousands of pro bono person-hours—worth more than $8 million in professional services fees—into Harlem alone.

 To date, some 40 Harlem businesses, all of them individually or family-owned and ranging from a bakery and café to a flower shop, a cabinet maker, and a plumbing store, have benefited from the UEI.