The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), El Pájaro Community Development Corporation (CDC) and Salinas United Business Association (SUBA) are working to help farmworkers develop successful businesses that increase their financial stability, improve their lives and meet the needs of the local population. They will receive $150,000 per year for two years to increase ownership and wealth creation opportunities among area farmworkers and other low-income residents through small business development and education, increased homeownership opportunities, and better access to capital. The initiative will reach out to agricultural workers who struggle to make ends meet in low-wage, seasonal farm jobs and support them in establishing their own entrepreneurial businesses.
ALBA and El Pájaro leverage local residents' entrepreneurship and farmworker experience with bi-lingual business, marketing, and agricultural education to help create both farm-based and urban businesses. SUBA is developing a Business Resource Center to advance business skills and community improvement in Salinas neighborhoods comprised primarily of low-income farmworkers and their families. ALBA operates two farms, with a total of 305 acres, where student farmers participate in a six-month Small Farmer Education Program before entering a farm incubator to grow their own crops for several years. ALBA helps them to establish their own farms, through purchase or lease, with the support of numerous partner organizations. In 2007, 24 farmers are operating at ALBA, growing more than 40 crops. ALBA also has a produce distribution company, ALBA Organics , which accounts for 25 percent of fresh produce sales by those who participate in its programs.
El Pájaro CDC provides services and support to small- and micro businesses on the Central Coast and manages a business incubator complex in downtown Watsonville . It works closely with ALBA and SUBA, and its business improvement district, the New Alisal of Salinas, which is a major economic center for the region's farmworker population. Ultimately the goal is to also establish a business incubator complex in the New Alisal in order to catalyze both entrepreneurship and community development.
The mission of ALBA is to advance economic viability, social equity and ecological land management among limited-resource and aspiring farmers. The organization works to create opportunities for family farms while providing education and demonstration on conservation, habitat restoration, and whole farm planning. (www.albafarmers.org)
El Pájaro CDC has more than twenty years of experience in the provision of bilingual/bicultural small business assistance and job creation for primarily minority and low-income entrepreneurs. The CDC is best known for its successful operation of the Plaza Vigil Business Incubator in Watsonville, CA . (www.elpajarocdc.org)
SUBA is a community-driven business organization improving the East Salinas (New Alisal) business district. Its programs are diversifying in order to not only advocate for small businesses in its district, but to also generate collaboration leading to greater civic engagement and community service. (www.subasalinas.com) |
Salinas and Pájaro Valleys Initiative