SBA to promote small biz creation in LGBT community
Yvette T. Collazo, SBA Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands district director, welcomes members of the LGBT community prior to SBA offering its seminar on how to start and expand a small business on the island.
The U.S. Small Business Administration Puerto Rico office and the humanitarian organization Nuestra Familia LGBTT Puerto Rico have entered into a strategic alliance to foster small business creation in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community on the island.
"The LGBT population has been underrepresented in the small business sector and yet it symbolizes the very essence of SBA's outreach mission," SBA District Director Yvette T. Collazo.
"We're working with Nuestra Familia LGBTT to ensure that more LGBT entrepreneurs have equal access to the tools and the resources they need to grow successful small businesses and create good jobs," she said.
Nuestra Familia LGBTT Puerto Rico is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization founded in 2015 with the purpose of making available to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transgender community the resources necessary to help each individual achieve integration, productivity, equal opportunities and civil rights, and a better quality of life.
"This strategic alliance is consistent with our organizations' efforts of helping our members achieve economic equality and inclusion in society," said Nuestra Familia LGBTT Executive Director Aracelys Amador.
"We're more than pleased with the working relationship we have begun with the SBA and hope to maintain it for many years, so as to continue providing the LGBT community with the assistance it needs to start and develop successful businesses," she said.
After signing the strategic alliance, SBA conducted its first business seminar for members of the LGBT community on the island. As part of their joint efforts to help expand small business ownership, SBA and Nuestra Familia LGBTT Puerto Rico will keep the other informed of programs and services available to small businesses, conduct training and outreach activities, and work to expand knowledge of and access to business resources and technical assistance.
LGBTT