Anewamerica Community Corporation

AnewAmerica offers a holistic three-year program, the Virtual Business Incubator, that assists new Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area to establish or expand microbusinesses, build personal assets for the sustainability of their families, and develop the community assets necessary to support the political, social, and cultural empowerment of their communities.

AnewAmerica's mission is to promote the long-term economic empowerment of new Americans - new citizens, immigrants, and refugees - and to encourage their full participation in the political, social and cultural growth of America.

AnewAmerica Community Corporation (formerly The New America Foundation) was founded in 1999 by a group of community leaders representing immigrants and community development advocates who saw a continuing lack of integrated job creation, asset development, and community empowerment strategies for low-income new Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Business Incubation

Participants earn a college certificate in business planning from our educational partner Holy Names University in Oakland. Technology is accessible to them through training and a computer loan program. They increase capacity for their business. They discover "solidarity" among themselves, helping each other to make it to class, boosting each other's self-esteem, teaching each other the new "know-how." Teamed with a business coach in their industry, they learn practical business management and operations techniques.

Asset Building

Participants gradually build assets, earning a 1:1 match to their savings through our Open Door-IDA Savings Incentive project. They save weekly to meet their business capital goals, and learn financial literacy through monthly Asset Builders Clubs. These savings can be utilized for business capitalization, homeownership, retirement funds, and for their children's college education.

Social Responsibility

Building community assets and developing leadership skills among new Americans is a main goal of AnewAmerica’s asset building with social responsibility model. AnewAmerica encourages all participants to engage in socially responsible activities of their choosing. As part of our program, Latino and Asian participants organize an annual Social Responsibility Summit, during which they plan joint advocacy and community development activities. In partnership with local community organizations, participants take part in visits to their representatives in Sacramento to advocate for immigrant and working families’ rights, fundraising for impoverished communities in their home countries, and sponsorship of special events for neighborhood community organizations. Business and financial trainings also include issues of social responsibility to increase participants’ awareness of their impact as business owners in their communities.

The Need

Many new Americans were barely able to make ends meet before the current recession. Studies show that one quarter of foreign-born Latino and Southeast Asian individuals in California live at or below the poverty line. Despite their high entrepreneurial energy and well-developed community support networks, newcomers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mexico and Central America, often find it difficult to break out of a cycle of poverty.

The Opportunity

To address this need, AnewAmerica offers a holistic three-year program, the Virtual Business Incubator, that assists new Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area to establish or expand microbusinesses, build personal assets for the sustainability of their families, and develop the community assets necessary to support the political, social, and cultural empowerment of their communities.

Our Model: One Of A Kind

AnewAmerica has developed an innovative model, Assets for New Americans: The Virtual Business Incubator, which integrates business incubation, asset-building and social responsibility. Entrepreneurs and their families receive a package of comprehensive services for three years to meet their cultural and linguistic needs.

Green Business Program
The Green Business Certification program will be an expansion on the social responsibility component of our program. In order to achieve the green business certification, entrepreneurs must either green their operations (i.e.: conserve natural resources or buy locally and organically) or provide an eco-friendly good or service to consumers (i.e.: eco-friendly house cleaning or organic fiber reusable bags). They also must complete the standard social responsibility project which can include advocating for environmental policies, food justice for low-income people, or volunteering for an ecologically sound organization.

Additionally, AnewAmerica is moving to incorporate green practices into all areas of our microenterprise development model. This will include green business ideals integrated into the business planning curriculum: green business owners as guest speakers in the business planning courses, a green business of the year award, and encouraging entrepreneurs to incorporate green business ideals into their business plans from the initial stages.
The outcomes of this program will be:
• Empowerment of entrepreneurs to green the production of their business services
• Development of a new line of green products
• Production of innovate eco-friendly alternatives to conventional, energy intensive products
• Expansion of healthy options for consumers
• Creation of a green microbusiness community
• Support of the local economy
• Increased consciousness of the conservation of natural resources
• Increased participation of microbusinesses owned by low-income families in the growing movement to protect our future generations.

Sylvia Rosales-Fike is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of AnewAmerica Community Corporation. AnewAmerica serves new American entrepreneurs and their families with business incubation, asset planning and financial services and social responsibility programs in nine counties of the greater Bay Area of California.

Sylvia has led business ventures and social enterprises to improve communities at the national and international level for 26 years. Her experience includes: the formation of businesses and banking services including Community Bank of the Bay in Oakland and village banks for women in Central America; philanthropic programs in Latin America and peace negotiation projects in Central America with the United Nations and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias; and direction of the community development division for the Unity Council in Oakland.

Sylvia is current board member of the national Association of Enterprise Opportunity, California Reinvestment Coalition, and California Association of Microenterprise Opportunity. She is the Vice-Chair of Union Bank of California’s Community Advisory Board.

Sylvia holds a master in public administration from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government; a master in culture and spirituality from Holy Names University, and a bachelor in arts in Sociology from the Central American University of El Salvador.

Recently, Sylvia was featured by the East Bay Business Times, and by the West Contra Costa Times as one of The Ten Women Who Rule in the East Bay. Other awards include the US Small Business Administration’s Micro-enterprise Advocate of the Year, and the ABC-KGO TV Profiles of Excellence.

Xavier Abrams
The Mechanics Bank

Bob Brauer
City of Oakland

Ana Chretien
ABC Security Service, Inc.

Steve Dial
CitiBank

Sam Kang
Greenlining Institute

Sr. Linda Orrick, SNJM (Chair)
Brenner, McDonagh & Tortolani

John Price, Esq.
Collette Erickson, Farmer & O'Neill LLP

Sylvia Rosales-Fike
AnewAmerica Community Corporation

Christine Sorensen
Glen Price Group

Thomas Wilson
Cathay Bank

Countries

United States

States

California

Contact

1918 UNIVERSITY AVE STE 3A

BERKELY, CA 94704-1051

Phone: (510) 540-7785

www.anewamerica.org

EIN: 94-3342658