Recognizing the correlation between unemployment and family health, Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Healthy Neighborhoods and the Orange County/Inland Empire Regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC) are collaborating this fall to provide entrepreneurship workshops in the city of Fullerton.
Twenty-five residents of the predominantly low-income, Latino area surrounding the Richman Neighborhood Park will have the opportunity to attend four free workshops in September, focusing on how to start a business, how to market a business, how to gain financial capital and how to plan for a business’ future.
During the workshops, offered in Spanish, educational programming for children will be provided at no cost by students and faculty members from the University’s College of Health and Human Development.
“The Center for Healthy Neighborhoods’ mission is to address education and health disparities, and also to revitalize neighborhoods,” said center director C. Jessie Jones. “Learning skills to help launch your own business can be one pathway out of poverty.
“This program is particularly important because not having a job is probably one of the main factors related to a family’s overall health and wellbeing,” she added.
The workshops are funded by a grant from State Farm and presented by the SBDC, an economic development program funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and housed on campus in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics.
“SBDC already runs similar programs with the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, as well as in Coachella Valley,” said Katrina Smith, SBDC associate director. “We’re very excited about this new opportunity to partner with a University program and to extend our services into the Fullerton community.”
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