ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Neighborhood revitalization through strengthening of the local economy
Ceiba - LEDC partners have:
Supported more than 800 Small Businesses in the Latino community of Philadelphia
Applied for SBA Navigator grant to help businesses secure technical assistance, grants, and financing. The grant was not awarded; however, the application process provided a sharper focus for our community's entrepreneurial support ecosystem
Secured multiyear Poverty Action Fund grant to stabilize families by better connecting them to free tax prep, public benefits, and social services.
Challenges
No Majority-Latino census tract in Philadelphia reported a median household income above the city’s median in 2020.
Majority-Latino census tracts see the highest disproportionate impact of employment exclusion. 53% of working age residents unemployed or not in the labor force in 2018 – 1.3 times that of majority-Black tracts and 2.3 times that of majority-Non-Hispanic-White census tracts.
Latino businesses are undercapitalized and lack access to sustained affordable capital. Only one of every two scaled LOBs that request large funding amounts from local banks obtains all the funding requested according to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Opportunities
If Latino businesses grew on average by one or two employees, they would create 22,000 jobs.
The development of small businesses in the community yields a "double dividend"; income to the business owners and others in the community plus neighborhood access to needed goods and services.
Tap the economic power of unauthorized immigrants by helping them to file taxes, connect with social services, and secure business loans and mortgages. More unauthorized immigrants live in Philadelphia than in any of the 5 largest cities in the Northeast, excluding NYC. 47% of unauthorized immigrant households have children; 73% of the children are US citizens by birth.