 Hello Columbia and welcome to CityView, where we bring you a close-up view of the city of Columbia. In our top story, the Office of Business Opportunities held their Minority Business Opportunity Conference for small business owners. A collaboration with many, many of our in-house departments, along with outside vendors, all together to try to help the small business community in various needs that they're presenting. One of the things that has happened over the years is that women and explicitly minority women haven't had the opportunities, the doors open to them, or even the exposure to opportunities. An event like this will empower them with the knowledge and availability of things that can attract or they can attract to their given lines of businesses. And speaking of business, Mayor Steve Benjamin recently met with small business administration officials who are visiting Columbia to meet and discuss ways to strengthen strategic business alliances in our area. Excited to be here with the regional director of the SBA to focus on ways in which we can work together much more comprehensively to accelerate the development of small businesses throughout Columbia and certainly increase the number of 8A businesses here. The incredible economic opportunities that small businesses provide for Americans of every stripe and certainly helping drive our economy. First off, we're just really glad to have Mayor Steve Benjamin City stepping up. We've seen a steady decline of our businesses in South Carolina that are part of our 8A program. So we're starting today to figure out how we can turn that around. How can we recruit more businesses to participate to make sure those contracting dollars are going to local businesses? So how great is it to have the city here to help us with some of their vendors who are doing work with the city of Columbia? If they're doing work with City of Columbia, hopefully they can do work with the federal government. Members of the Columbia Fire Department recently were promoted during a ceremony that was officiated by Fire Chief Aubrey D. Jenkins. Once again this year, the City of Columbia participated in and recognized National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Two events were held, which started with a community law enforcement forum that was held at Benedict College. In addition to the community forum regarding law enforcement, a youth symposium was also held in honor of National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Unfortunately, the heavy reliance that our youth, and not only our youth, but our entire society, when it comes to social media and some of the other different platforms, those things in some cases have proved to be counterproductive. Those things in some cases have proved to be detriments to the development and the well-being of our youth. And so we're trying to encourage them to manage it in a safe and productive manner. We're also trying to equip our youth with the necessary information, the necessary knowledge and insight that allows them to hopefully be proactive in trying to steer clear on some of the issues. And speaking of youth, literacy and reading are also important factors in a young person's life. Recently at Greenview Elementary School, Councilman Sam Davis presented a proclamation to school officials to acknowledge a great achievement made by their students. As a part of Mayor Pro Tem Tamika Isaac Devine, Heart Month Initiatives, this year the city of Columbia participated in the annual Heart Walk, sponsored by the American Heart Association. In today's society, I mean it's so easy to live a very busy lifestyle, but really not be active. And so, you know, I'm somebody who, I'm running from place to place, meeting to meeting and I have to be really intentional about getting out, walking more, eating right. And so, for us, we feel like walking is something very easy. Anybody can do no matter what your fitness level is. We wanna make sure that, you know, people understand that something easy like coming out to a 5K with your neighbors and your friends is a way that you're doing something to promote heart health for your own self as well as, you know, being able to hang out with some great friends and neighbors. And so we thought it was an easy opportunity for us to promote heart health and we think it's important to keep that message going all throughout the summer and in spring that, you know, we've got great walking trails in Columbia, so you can, you know, get with some friends, you can put on some earbuds and just go out to any of our walking trails and get your walk on. Well, that wraps up this episode of City View, where we give you a close-up view of the city of Columbia. Thank you for watching and stay tuned to City TV for the latest and news and information from the city of Columbia. You can also find information about the city of Columbia on our website at columbiasc.net and make sure you follow us on our social media platforms, especially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And remember, we are Columbia.