The Aspen Institute Latinos & Society Program (AILAS) launched the 12-month City Learning and Action Lab in five Latino-Majority cities across the U.S, including Chicago.
Under the Latino Business and Entrepreneurship Initiative, the City Learning and Action Lab will work with five Latino-majority communities to spur economic growth in regions where COVID-19 exacerbated long-existing inequities.
The initiative is a hub and spoke model designed to support anchor organizations in each city to form an entrepreneurial ecosystem steering committee composed of 8 to 10 key cross-sector leaders.
Committee members will coalesce around strategic priorities and implement solutions to boost and sustain the local Latino business economy.
The first cohort of cities includes Long Beach and San Bernardino in California, the Southwest side of Chicago in Illinois, and El Paso and San Antonio in Texas.
The initiative is funded by generous public, corporate and individual philanthropic support, including: the City of San Bernardino; Vanir Construction Management Inc.; Dr. J. Mario Molina; Secretary Henry Cisneros; the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation, and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other donors.
“This is the first program of its kind focused on Latino majority cities and communities to strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems,” said Domenika Lynch, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Latinos & Society Program.
“There’s tremendous innovation happening in Latino communities as they work to rebuild after Covid-19, but access to capital, capacity building, and collaboration are needed to scale impact. The City Learning and Action Lab empowers and enhances local leaders’ efforts to attract capital investment and resources to Latino communities where they live and operate. What is so exciting is that local funders are embracing our vision of curating Latino-centric communities to learn, innovate together, and connect to national networks to catalyze change in their local communities.”
The initiative is a hub and spoke model designed to support anchor organizations in each city to form an entrepreneurial ecosystem steering committee composed of 8 to 10 key cross-sector leaders.
Committee members will coalesce around strategic priorities and implement solutions to boost and sustain the local Latino business economy. Activities will be carried out through the four tracks illustrated below:
In May 2021, the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program launched a report, Latino Inclusion in the Digital Economy that laid bare the impact of Covid-19 on Latino-owned businesses in the U.S.
One of the key findings included research by McKinsey & Company which found the five business sectors most affected by the pandemic – leisure and hospitality, retail trade, construction, transportation, and other services – generate almost 50 percent of revenue for all Latino-owned businesses.
Through the City Learning and Action Lab, the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University will work closely with the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society team to help local regions take stock of the number, size, and sector orientation of Latino-owned businesses to identify opportunities and pain points and crack the code for business growth in Latino communities in a post-Covid economy.
Prior to the pandemic, Latino entrepreneurs accounted for the highest rate of new business creation in the U.S., growing at a rate of 34% in the past decade according to a study by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative.
The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative also reported 86% of Latino-owned businesses experienced immediate negative effects of Covid-19 in the first months of the shutdown.
According to the Brookings Institution, 80% of Latino-owned small and medium enterprises did not receive Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) financing, which has been crucial for businesses across the country.
The Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program (AILAS), founded in 2015, provides a non-partisan, unbiased platform for shared learning across communities of influencers on the critical barriers preventing greater Latino achievement, and jointly surfaces new, innovative, and actionable solutions for a more prosperous future for all Americans. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org/latinos-society
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org
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