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| 1.14.04 | ||||||
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AnewAmerica Empowers Immigrant Family to Begin Dream Business Berkeley, CA – With training and assistance from
AnewAmerica, Lourdes Rodriguez and her family have finally realized
their long-time dream of opening an auto body shop. Lourdes Rodriguez brought her five children from
Mexico 17 years ago to join her husband in San Francisco, California.
The family had high hopes, but success was anything easy.
Before enrolling in AnewAmerica’s Virtual Business Incubator
Program three years ago, Lourdes worked 11 hours a day in a sewing
factory for a mere $50/week. Her
husband was a mechanic who made $4.25 an hour. However, Lourdes’ work with AnewAmerica began to
pay off immediately. Soon
she was raising capital with an ad hoc “bedding microbusiness,”
selling Mexican blankets and bedding out of her car.
The money she managed to save was matched in an AnewAmerica’s
Individual Development Account and before long transformed into real
success. When asked what gave her the courage to make this
happen for herself, she answers that AnewAmerica’s business courses
gave her confidence in her administration and accounting skills, as well
as the respect this has brought about from the men in her family. “At
first, I didn’t think we were going to stay for the three years of the
program – it felt too long. And here we are, 3 years later, having so
much fun and seeing our dream becoming true,” Lourdes said. With such pluck and determination – as well as
the expert advice of AnewAmerica’s staff, consultants and partners –
this Mexican-immigrant family accomplished something which many others
could only aspire. Their shop, Tiger’s Auto Body, is located in
Brisbane, South of San Francisco and will celebrate its grand opening of
on January 24, 2004. The
opening ceremony will include music and refreshments, as well as a short
presentation about their AnewAmerica. “It is the efforts of immigrants like the
Rodriguez family that make our community vibrant, profitable and safe;
this is exactly the kind of success that AnewAmerica has been designed
to support,” said Sylvia Rosales-Fike, President of AnewAmerica. The ceremony will also be attended by Brisbane
Mayor Michael Barnes. “It is my pleasure to welcome Tiger Auto Body, a
family-owned and community oriented business to Brisbane,” said
Barnes, adding that, last year, Brisbane’s Parle Promotions received
the Distributorship of the Year award from the US Commerce
Department’s Minority Business Development Agency. “Family-owned, community-oriented businesses are
important members of any healthy community. Brisbane has a history of providing a welcome business climate
for such enterprises,” said the Mayor. AnewAmerica Community Corporation 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.
In 2003, AnewAmerica activities assisted in the creation of 28
new microbusinesses, 14 business expansions and 42 new jobs. |
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The Tiger Auto Body Grand Opening Ceremony
will be held Saturday, January 24, 2004 at 2:30pm at 23 Industrial Way
in Brisbane, South of San Francisco (from Highway 101, take the Cow
Palace Exit to Bayshore). /END/ |
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