LGBT Center's Economic Development Program Gets Down to Business for the Community

By Ken Stram

In November 2000, the Human Rights Commission of the City of San Francisco issued a report on economic empowerment for local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. This report indicated that despite myths of "gay affluence," LGBT people are found at every level of the economic spectrum, and that the economic effects of discrimination are experienced in areas including employment, housing, and access to capital and technical assistance for LGBT entrepreneurs and small business owners. The report further indicated that certain communities confront extreme economic hardship. Transgender people, for example, face difficulties in finding and retaining employment, showing astronomical rates of unemployment with resulting economic challenges.

Recognizing that no other organization was specifically addressing this array of economic challenges faced by the LGBT community, The Center saw the opportunity to fill a gap in existing services in a way that actively advanced its own mission without competing with the rich diversity of LGBT-serving organizations in the Bay Area. The Center thus initiated a groundbreaking LGBT Economic Development Program.

The Center officially launched its Economic Development Program in late April 2004, with three aims: workforce development, to increase the number of LGBT people who are satisfactorily employed; business development, to open access to existing services an acilitate the development of new programs for LGBT entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create jobs; and asset building/financial literacy, to encourage LGBT individuals to become more self-sufficient by accumulating saving to make long-term investment in housing, in higher education and training, and in business.

These programs have racked up impressive successes in a very short time. For example:

• More than 1000 job seekers attended The Center's 3 job fairs in 2004. Many job seekers have found employment as a result of our efforts. The next job fair will take place on February 9, 2005.
• Dozens of LGBT entrepreneurs have received one-on-one technical assistance through the Business Development Program, and this new program recently marked its first successful effort to help a client secure a small business loan for yoga instructor LaMott Atkins. LaMott's loan enabled him to open Bikram Yoga/Castro at 301 Eureka Street in San Francisco.
• Finally, The Center recently launched the Financial Growth and Development program, which consists largely of a series of workshops to encourage LGBT individuals to become more self-sufficient by accumulating savings to make long-term investments in housing, in higher education and training, and in business.

Please contact Ken Stram at 865-5515 or kens@sfcenter.org, if you have ideas or you want further information about The Center's Workforce Development, Business Development, Financial Growth and Development, or overall Economic Development Programs.