Working Solutions is honored to have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration through the Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs (PRIME). Now in its 20th year, the PRIME grant program was created to help low-income entrepreneurs gain access to capital. Thank you to our local and national partners at the SBA, and congratulations to our fellow grantees across the country.

Sara Razavi is proud to have been nominated by partner Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to run for the board of the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN). Elections will be held at the upcoming OFN National Conference in October 2019. Read on to learn more about Sara and why she is interested in serving on the OFN board.

We are excited to announce that Working Solutions is one of four CDFIs joining forces to support a new partnership that combines our small business lending and free consulting with good jobs tools from our partner Pacific Community Ventures.

Working Solutions staff member Ginelle Curincita attended the 2nd Annual Minority Women’s Business Conference in San Jose in early September, hosted by the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce and the Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship.

Working Solutions was pleased to partner with Bank of the West, the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and Pacific Community Ventures on an event to raise awareness about lending resources available to small business owners through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Our thanks to Bank of the West and Nasdaq for this opportunity to promote our work and the broader CDFI industry!

Working Solutions has been growing our outreach efforts in the South Bay over the past year. Thanks to the support of the Sobrato Family Foundation and Wells Fargo, we have increased our staff presence and participation at community events in Silicon Valley and on the Peninsula. Recently, Working Solutions staff member Ginelle Curincita presented at two Spanish-language forums in San Jose, both hosted by the FDIC.

Working Solutions is proud to have been awarded a grant from Bank of America to support our work to provide affordable capital, customized business consulting, and community connections to start-up and early-stage businesses across the Bay Area. Working Solutions has invested over $22 million in local small businesses to date, and with the support of partners like Bank of America, we plan to more than double that impact over the next 5 years.

Working Solutions is proud to support our advocacy partner, the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC). CRC recently negotiated a groundbreaking Community Reinvestment Act agreement with Mechanics Bank as part of its acquisition of Rabobank, N.A. The agreement goes into effect in January 2020 and represents billions of dollars in community investment by the Bank into communities across California. Read more here about this agreement and our partnership with both CRC and Mechanics Bank.

Working Solutions staff recently joined African-American business owners for a two-day retreat organized by EVOLVE. The collective heard from inspiring presenters, did a great deal of networking, and discussed health and wellbeing—an integral part of the retreat offering. Working Solutions left the retreat with more leads than any other event in the history of the organization! Thank you to the EVOLVE team for this opportunity.

Working Solutions is pleased to announce that we have a new five-year Strategic Plan! We are excited about our plans for the future and look forward to serving many more local entrepreneurs in the coming years. You can read the full Strategic Plan here.

Working Solutions is thrilled to be featured in the May/June issue of the Oakland Business Review (OBR)! Thank you to the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce for this opportunity to highlight our work—providing affordable capital, customized business consulting, and community connections to start-up and early-stage businesses in the East Bay and across the Bay Area. You can read this issue of OBR here.

Thank you to all of the supporters, volunteers, clients, and other members of our small business community who joined us at the 2019 Invest in Dreams Breakfast! Check out the great photos and inspiring videos from the event here.

Working Solutions staff had a great time participating in Small Business Week activities across the Bay Area this year, including events in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Thanks to all of the many partners and sponsors who made these events possible. We also want to give particular thanks to the San Francisco Small Business Week team for featuring both Working Solutions and the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund on their blog!

Wells Fargo has been a strong and consistent partner to Working Solutions since the inception of our program. In 2005, it was a $500,000 loan from Wells Fargo that seeded our microlending work, and we have since partnered together on several strategic initiatives, including the Economic Opportunity Grant in the North Bay and the Diverse Community Capital program in the East Bay.

In partnership with Credit Builders Alliance (CBA), Working Solutions and like-minded organizations are supporting Senate Bill 619, which is being introduced by State Senator Ben Hueso. Senate Bill 619 would establish a 3-year, opt-in rent reporting pilot program in declared "Promise Zone" cities throughout the State of California.

Our Invest in Dreams Breakfast is coming up on Thursday, May 9 during Small Business Week. We would love your help spreading the word!

On February 28, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in 26 counties, including Sonoma County, due to flooding and damage from rain storms that swept across California. To support the recovery of our North Bay communities, Working Solutions is providing Emergency Relief Loans for affected businesses and a 3-month forbearance opportunity to current borrowers affected by the floods.

With 20 years behind us, we are ready to meet the future head on. Our goal is to continue to focus on the hardest to reach, the smallest, earliest ventures, and to make sure we deploy $30 million in microloans and serve 1,000 local businesses by 2021 … and to keep going. 

"Small loans make a big difference for women and minorities” proclaims the San Francisco Chronicle in an article on the front page of the Sunday Business Report published on January 13, 2019. The article highlights how Working Solutions has supported Bay Area small businesses.

Opportunity Zones are a hot topic in many circles with investors, real estate developers, and community development groups. The Bay Area, and Oakland specifically, have been designated as very high potential Opportunity Zones.