2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

December 2001

• We held our first annual holiday party at The Vo's Restaurant in Oakland. We are excited to be working with two vibrant, dedicated groups of new American entrepreneurs, and look forward to continuing to work with and for them in the coming year. As a community service project, our Latino incubator provided food, entertainment, and gifts for the Fruitvale Senior Center's holiday party. Almost 100 residents and guests attended the party, where they ate delicious Latino foods, enjoyed holiday music, and even had a surprise visit from Santa Claus!

October 2001

• We received a grant from the Community Technology Foundation of California to support our Technology Bridging to Economic Justice program.  The program will enable these entrepreneurs to use personal computers and the internet for communication, business accounting, advertising, and other functions without which a small business today is at a serious disadvantage. The population served is doubly in need of these services, facing not only barriers of language, culture, and discrimination that make it difficult for them to start businesses and build assets, but also being on the wrong side of the digital divide, and therefore lacking the means to use technology to improve their situations. “In today’s business world technology is an essential ingredient for running a small business. Immigrants have historically been great entrepreneurs, but you can’t succeed if your idea of technology is a calculator,” says Sylvia Rosales-Fike, AnewAmerica’s founder and president. “Unfortunately, low-income people, including new Americans, have very low rates of computer ownership and internet connection. Our technology training is meant to eliminate the digital divide for these underrepresented communities, giving them access to the tools they need to become economically empowered in the contemporary market.”

• Our first Vietnamese group began the Virtual Business Incubator program. The participants (and we here at AnewAmerica) have been learning a lot, and having a lot of fun while doing it!

• We received a grant award of $230,591 under the Program for Investment in Microenterprise (PRIME) of the U.S. Small Business Administration to support our training and technical assistance components.   The PRIME program is a new initiative developed by the SBA to provide disadvantaged microentrepreneurs training and technical assistance to start, grow and sustain their microenterprises.

• We received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Service, in the amount of $107,965 to support our Open Door-IDA Savings Incentive program.  IDAs, or Individual Development Accounts, enable participants to receive matching funds when savings from earned income are used to purchase tangible assets. As part of the national Assets For Independence Demonstration Program, AnewAmerica is one of dozens of agencies across the country who are pioneering the use of IDAs as a means of alleviating poverty.