PAST EVENTS——-

Join CCEDA and leading community economic development (CED) practitioners for workshops in Los Angeles and Oakland. Daylong sessions will convene CED practitioners, nonprofit staff, local government, and funders to share successes and challenges while providing plenty of time for networking and collaboration. Discussions will focus on emerging sectors of the CED field and are intended to inform and empower community-based nonprofits to build successful, sustainable programs and partnerships.

Job Creation and Entrepreneurship in the Community-Based Food Industry

Monday, April 23rd in Los Angeles & Wednesday, April 25th in Oakland

CED organizations have developed successful programs that train entrepreneurs in fresh and healthy food production, processing, and distribution, including incubators, training programs, and value-added food processing. These programs offer hands-on training and business technical assistance for local entrepreneurs, while bringing fresh and healthy foods to food deserts.

Join seasoned practitioners for a workshop focusing on how CED organizations can build economic opportunity in their communities through incubators, training programs, and other entrepreneurial activities in the fresh food sector. Hear from financial institutions and other supporting organizations about industry trends and opportunities. Learn how some of the most successful programs were designed and discuss best practices with CED veterans. Detailed case studies will contextualize challenges, opportunities, and successes.

Workshop agenda is available here.

Participating speakers and organizations include:

LOS ANGELES — Monday, April 23rd

• Brian Albert, Founder and Co-Owner, L.A. Prep — Brian Albert is a co-founder of Civic Enterprise Development, a real estate development company responsible for L.A. Prep, the successful multi-tenant food manufacturing complex which has garnered national attention for revolutionizing food production space. L.A. Prep has begun expansion of the concept to South Los Angeles and opportunities in cities around the country.  Civic Enterprise has built its reputation as one of Los Angeles’ premier mid-size developers through projects that capitalize on Southern California’s rich urban environment and create energized, community-oriented places. 
• Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director, Leadership for Urban Renewal Network (LURN) — LURN supports sustainable communities by developing solutions to fight poverty, build sustainable economies, and resilient communities. LURN deployed over $170,000 in capital to 15 low-income food entrepreneurs and home-based businesses, many of whom are street vendors. LURN also delivered over 89,500 pounds of fresh and affordable produce to 60 small markets located in underserved food desert communities.
• Robert Zapata, Community Development Officer, Opportunity Fund — Opportunity Fund is California’s leading microfinance organization, with a mission of advancing the economic well-being of working people by helping them earn, save and invest in their future. Its microlending and micro-savings programs support projects and small businesses across the state.
• Catherine Howard, Director of Strategic Initiatives — California FreshWorks is a loan and grant program that provides financing to food enterprises that work to increase access to affordable, healthy food in low-income and underserved communities in California. FreshWorks supports businesses that grow, aggregate, distribute, and sell healthy food in a way that builds a sustainable food system and reaches people in need. FreshWorks is a multi-lender network, managed by the Northern California Community Loan Fund.
• Tomas Duran, President, Concerned Capital — Tomás has more than 15 years of economic development experience in low income communities of Southern California. He applies his finance, new market tax credits, and redevelopment skills to develop creative and innovative economic development solutions for private businesses.
• Evan Edwards, Business Development, Project Equity — Evan Edwards directs strategy, business development and fundraising for Project Equity, a nonprofit that supports businesses to transition to employee ownership as a succession strategy for exiting business owners. 

OAKLAND — Wednesday, April 25th

• Carmen Herrera-Mansir, Executive Director, El Pájaro Community Development Corporation — El Pájaro promotes the development of micro-businesses by helping low-income minority entrepreneurs in Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties. El Pajaro provides instruction, bilingual/bicultural business training, business incubation, professional consulting, and coaching.
• Leticia Landa, Deputy Director, La Cocina — La Cocina cultivates low-income food entrepreneurs by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. La Cocina focuses primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities.
• Nathaniel Owen, Director, Adelante Fund (Mission Economic Development Agency) — Adelante Fund’s microlending program offers loans of up to $100,000 to San Francisco small-business owners. All loan recipients receive pre- and post-loan closing technical assistance from MEDA’s Business Development Program, offered in English and Spanish. By supporting borrowers with business coaching, this loan fund will be able to consider small-business owners who are often deemed high risk by other microlenders. Ultimately, these small-business owners will create jobs within San Francisco’s lower-income communities.
• Sharon Miller, CEO, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center — Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s mission is to empower and increase the entrepreneurial capacities of socially and economically diverse women and men, and thereby strengthen our communities through the creation of sustainable new businesses, new jobs, and the promotion of financial self-sufficiency. Renaissance provides entrepreneurship training and skill building workshops, while offering technical assistance and access to capital, resources, and networks.
• Daniel Fernandez, Director of Microlending, Opportunity Fund — Opportunity Fund is California’s leading microfinance organization, with a mission of advancing the economic well-being of working people by helping them earn, save and invest in their future. Its microlending and micro-savings programs support projects and small businesses across the state.
• Catherine Howard, Director of Strategic Initiatives — California FreshWorks is a loan and grant program that provides financing to food enterprises that work to increase access to affordable, healthy food in low-income and underserved communities in California. FreshWorks supports businesses that grow, aggregate, distribute, and sell healthy food in a way that builds a sustainable food system and reaches people in need. FreshWorks is a multi-lender network, managed by the Northern California Community Loan Fund.
• Tomas Duran, President, Concerned Capital — Tomás has more than 15 years of economic development experience in low income communities of Southern California. He applies his finance, new market tax credits, and redevelopment skills to develop creative and innovative economic development solutions for private businesses.
• Alison Lingane, Co-Founder, Project Equity — Alison Lingane is the co-founder of Project Equity, a nonprofit that supports businesses to transition to employee ownership as a succession strategy for exiting business owners. She started her career in community-based work, designing and leading micro-enterprise programs for urban youth. Inspired to gain skills to bring programs to scale that create real opportunity for people, she left to get her MBA, and co-founded what is now the Global Social Venture Competition, the largest international business plan competition for double or triple bottom line businesses. 
• Tim Huet, Founder, Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives — Tim is a founder of the Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives, a cooperative composed of nine member businesses: six bakeries, a landscape design-build cooperative, a general contractor, and a technical support collective.  As part of the Association’s Development & Support Cooperative, Tim participates in everything from writing business plans to training workers in the daily details of democratic business management; he also serves as in-house legal counsel. Tim serves other cooperatives as an attorney as organizational consultant.  He lives at a housing cooperative in Oakland.

Community-Based Social Enterprise

Wednesday, June 13th in Oakland & Monday, June 18th in Los Angeles

Social enterprise (SE) is a hot topic in the CED field and the broader business community. In recent years, CED organizations across the state have established SEs that create jobs and build wealth while providing services and goods to their communities. There is incredible potential in this emerging field, but CED practitioners must also understand the inherent risks and challenges.

Join seasoned practitioners for a workshop focusing on how social enterprises can complement and augment place-based CED work. Hear how successful SEs operate, how to determine when a SE makes sense, funding opportunities, and best practices from funders and leading practitioners in the field. This session will inform community-based organizations and foster discussions among CED practitioners, and will include an overview of how social enterprises operate, key concepts to consider in business planning, legal structures, and business management. Detailed case studies will contextualize challenges, opportunities, and successes.

Workshop agenda is available here.

Participating speakers and organizations include:

OAKLAND — Wednesday, June 13th

• Noah Halton, National Program Director, Juma — Juma owns 20+ social enterprise operations and serves over 1,100 low-income youth per year in eight cities – Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. As one of the country’s largest youth-run social enterprise operations- and the first to provide financial capability and matched savings accounts to teens – Juma has employed over 6,000 low-income students who have generated $29.4 million in enterprise revenue, earned $8.1 million in wages, and saved $5.8 million for higher education.
• Leticia Landa, Deputy Director, La Cocina — La Cocina cultivates low income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. La Cocina focuses primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities. Its vision is that entrepreneurs gain financial security by doing what they love to do, creating an innovative, vibrant and inclusive economic landscape. La Cocina was born out of a belief that a community of natural entrepreneurs, given the right resources, can create self-sufficient businesses that benefit themselves, their families, their community, and the whole city.
• Cathryn Couch, Executive Director, Ceres Community Project — Ceres Community Project created our first social enterprise project in 2009 with the publication of our Nourishing Connections cookbook. This was followed in 2011 with the launch of a contract nutrition education program provided to federally qualified health centers. Today, Ceres operates a number of social enterprise programs including its Nourishing Connections cookbook, community nutrition and education, its National Affiliate Program (a licensing program for communities that wish to replicate the Ceres’ model), its Client Meal Delivery & Nutrition Education Program, catering services, and a cafe. 
• Mariela Cedeno, Director of Business and Lending, Mandela Marketplace — Mandela MarketPlace is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through cooperative food enterprises in low-income communities. Through community engagement, education, business cultivation, and financing, Mandela MarketPlace supports and resources the development and growth of locally owned economies and sustainable food systems.
• Bret Sweet, Center Director, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center — Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s mission is to empower and increase the entrepreneurial capacities of socially and economically diverse women and men, and thereby strengthen our communities through the creation of sustainable new businesses, new jobs, and the promotion of financial self-sufficiency. Renaissance provides entrepreneurship training and skill building workshops, while offering technical assistance and access to capital, resources, and networks.
• Nate Shaffran, Manager of Food and Enterprise Lending, Business Development, Northern California Community Loan Fund — NCCLF promotes economic justice and alleviates poverty by increasing the financial resilience and sustainability of community-based nonprofits and enterprises. Through flexible financial products and sound advice, NCCLF creates opportunities to make socially responsible investments that revitalize Northern and Central California communities.
• Brad Caftel, Vice President of Finance and Operations, Insight Center for Community Economic Development — Brad has broad experience in providing legal, tax, organizational, and strategic planning advice and training to community and faith-based organizations on their internal development and operations, business and real-estate development, and community-development finance strategies. He has published extensively in the area of community economic development and nonprofit management. 

LOS ANGELES — Monday, June 18th

• Trevor Kale, Vice President, Chrysalis Enterprises — Chrysalis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a pathway to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals by providing the resources and support needed to find and retain employment. Chrysalis has served over 60,000 people since its founding in 1984. In 1991 Chrysalis developed its first social enterprise for clients who had the greatest barriers to employment. Today, Chrysalis operates 3 social enterprises that employ nearly 350 individuals each week. By working in this program, Chrysalis clients have the opportunity to gain real-world skills, build confidence, and develop the experience needed to find and retain long-term employment.
• Brian Albert, Founder and Co-Owner, L.A.Prep — Brian Albert is a co-founder of Civic Enterprise Development, a real estate development company responsible for L.A. Prep, the successful multitenant food manufacturing complex which has garnered national attention for revolutionizing food production space. L.A. Prep has begun expansion of the concept to South Los Angeles and opportunities in cities around the country.  Civic Enterprise has built its reputation as one of Los Angeles’ premier mid-size developers through projects that capitalize on Southern California’s rich urban environment and create energized, community-oriented places. 
• Ben Pak, Administrator, PaceCare, Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment (PACE) — PACE Care is PACE’s newest social venture. PACE Care is a senior care management company. PACE Care helps families develop solutions for the long-term care needs of their elderly relatives and is a licensed home care agency in California. It is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USC Good Neighbors Campaign, and Keiro to provide culturally competent long-term care for seniors in Los Angeles and provide meaningful employment to area residents.
• Mark Wilson, President and CEO, Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD) — CRCD is a neighborhood-base community development corporation in the Vernon-Central neighborhood in South Los Angeles.  CRCD has a unique focus on young people age 14-24, and collaborates actively with residents, businesses, community-based organizations, civic leaders, and the local community college to improve the quality of life in South Central LA. CRCD’s social enterprise, CRCD Enterprises, is a fully insured and licensed professional maintenance services company. Their services are available to homeowners, commercial business, public agencies, property management companies, and real estate developers.
• Betsy Densmore, Founder/Managing Director, Academies for Social Entrepreneurship (ASE) — ASE helps develop innovative solutions to social problems by providing rigorous training and mentoring for social entrepreneurs. Since 2009, ASE has helped nearly 300 organizations launch or grow ventures, producing more than 8 million dollars in new investment and earned income streams. ASE’s core program is the Social Enterprise Academy, which typically takes place over approximately five months and engages 6 to 12 organizations in a rigorous growth planning process. During an Academy, participants receive training, mentoring and the chance to participate in a venture competition where they present their plan to potential investors.
• Vivienne Lee, Principal Consultant, Strategic Partnerships, REDF — REDF is the only venture philanthropy in the U.S. that invests exclusively in the growth of social enterprises focused on employment. Since 1997, REDF has provided seed and growth capital and specialized advisory services to over 140 social enterprises in California, which have earned and reinvested in their businesses more than $473 million in revenue and employed 27,000 people, helping spending for government programs go further while improving lives and communities.
• Kristy Ollendorff, Chief Commercial Credit Officer, Clearinghouse CDFI — Clearinghouse CDFI is a full-service, direct lender financing projects that create jobs & services to help people work, live, dream, grow, & thrive in healthy communities. Clearinghouse CDFI’s mission is to provide economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for lower-income individuals and communities through innovative and affordable financing that is unavailable in the conventional market.

Register for workshops here:

• Wednesday, June 13^th – California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, Oakland
• Monday, June 18^th – California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, Los Angeles

Sessions are made possible with the generous support of JP Morgan Chase, Cathay Bank, FHLBank San Francisco’s AHEAD Program, and the California Community Services and Development Department.

CCEDA also thanks our organizational supporters: Wells Fargo Bank, OneWest/CIT Bank, City National Bank, Cathay Bank, BBVA, US Bank, JP Morgan Chase, State of California Community Services and Development, Citigroup, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Comerica Bank, Bank of the West, Pacific Premier Bank, Pacific Western Bank, Boston Private, and California United Bank.