Strategize to Win: Technical Assistance Strategies for Small Businesses
November 10, 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM ET
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Panelists will discuss strategies to help new BIPOC- and immigrant-owned small businesses get started and how to expand technical assistance to established businesses. Topics will include business coaching, training, planning, marketing, professional development, and expanding local hiring and contract opportunities.
Sponsored by the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders.
Levar Martin
Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders
Moderator
Levar Martin
Mileyka Burgos-Flores
Executive Director, The Allapattah Collaborative CDC
Panelist
Mileyka Burgos-Flores
Mileyka Burgos-Flores is a Dominican-American activist and founding Executive Director & CEO of The Allapattah Collaborative, CDC- a placed based, non-profit organization that uses Main Street Approach to preserve and expand cultural authenticity and wealth building in
marginalized immigrant enclaves. The organization aims to revitalize the Little Santo Domingo commercial corridors in the midst of mitigating climate gentrification pressures
as it focuses on its mission of (1)implementing place making techniques to foster identity, (2)supporting wealth building strategies for marginalized communities of color and (3)advocating for policies/procedures that support equitable, comprehensive and sustainable community development. Mileyka holds a bachelor degree from the
University of Miami and a master degree from Florida International University. She is an avid advocate for social justice in marginalized communities by working with neighborhood stakeholders in grassroots community engagement campaigns and inter-agency collaborations. She has been a champion in asset-framing the Latinx immigrant contributions and experience, as well as advocating for the preservation of culture in marginalized cultural enclaves under the principles of access, equity, representation, inclusion and upward mobility. Mileyka is a 2022 Center for Community Investment Fulcrum Fellow, focused on establishing shared equity community ownership models to prevent displacement and enhance wealth building in Allapattah.
Kersy Azocar
President & CEO, Greenline Access Capital
Panelist
Kersy Azocar
Kersy Azocar is the President and CEO of Greenline Access Capital and has over 16 years of experience in the financial industry. For 13 years she worked at a Philadelphia-based Community Financial Development Institution (CDFI) where she managed a microlending department with a national scope, closing over 1,600 loans and 6Million dollars.
Greenline Access Capital, is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) financial organization serving Philadelphia, founded in 2021 on the principal of providing equitable access to financial resiliency and wealth through entrepreneurship. Greenline has provided Technical Assistance to over 101 clients, majority Latinos/Latinas and facilitated access to 2.9 million to 45 small businesses through financial assistance (loans and grants), with various federal and state programs, including the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). Additionally, within the first 8 months of lending operations, Greenline Access Capital closed 9 loans totaling $62,000 made to Hispanic, all immigrant business owners from various industries and countries in Latin America.
Originally from the Dominican Republic, Kersy prides herself on being able to address the needs of emerging and existing entrepreneurs.