Dear Amigos:
This “30+1” anniversary is a unique moment to reflect on our past, present, and future.
The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC)’s mission and values have remained unalterable despite the passage of time. We work every day to help cultivate knowledge, connections, and collaboration to achieve transformational social change and sustainable economic impact through entrepreneurship.
Since our first day, we promote economic growth by empowering entrepreneurs. We build an ecosystem to accelerate Hispanic business growth and profitability. We work every day to be the leading voice to advance Hispanic businesses’ economy throughout the state of Illinois.
What do Latino businesses mean for the Illinois economy? On average, Hispanic businesses have one-tenth of the revenue and have less than half of the total number of employees of the average business. This fact alone establishes that the great majority of Latino businesses are in great need of assistance to reach their full potential, these businesses have demonstrated their capacity to drive job creation and economic growth.
The Hispanic business community is the lifeline of many Illinoisans, a community in need of investments and resources to reinvigorate and enable local communities to not only recover from the pandemic, but regain momentum in their path to growth and prosperity.
For that reason, we are very excited about the future of our Latino business community and the success of our members. As always, our organization provides unmatched opportunities to align with old and new relationships to network with prospective clients, as well as offer a dynamic schedule of events. As we look to the future, we continue our strategic planning for this quickly evolving business environment in order to offer our members more tools to be successful moving forward.
Last year was like no other we have ever witnessed, and all of us at the IHCC went into high gear to support its members and became a shining light in the wake of troubling times. It made me very proud to be part of an organization that was so supportive of local businesses, a true passion of mine. The Chamber proudly acted as a marketing arm for many of the businesses that understandably needed assistance during times of COVID-19.
As a proud Latino business owner, it is of the utmost importance to me to ensure that our community continues to grow and prosper.
Whether you have been in business for a long time or just became a new business owner, call us or visit us to ask how we can be of benefit to you through our programming; Illinois Latino Small Business Partnership, Cook County Covid-19 Recovery Program, Small Business Development Center, Small Business Transportation Resource Center, Procurement Technical Assistance Center, Illinois Tollway Technical Assistance Program and LatinX Incubator. We look forward to helping you.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire staff, thank you for helping strengthen our business community for over 30 years, our organization has been a vital and instrumental component of our Latino business community. Serving our businesses has never been more important to us will continue to work together to navigate these uncertain times.
Jaime di Paulo
President & CEO – Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce