WE CAN: Community Development Coalition

VOPH is committed to solving the problem of lack when it comes to opportunity and entrepreneurial support in Black American communities.  There are countless ideas existing in communities, but without the financial backing and business development support, many awesome ideas's full potential are rarely realized.  Our program proposes 5-10 nonprofit/community based organizations on site as Program Operators, receiving hands on training and business development services in Lindenwold, Camden County and southern New Jersey. These programs will include our food outreach, senior outreach, health and wellness, life development case management. We propose to have an online educational partnership with MIT offering residents of Lindenwold New Jersey, an Opportunity Zone, access to a series of certificate programs that will assist them in life, career and business development. Youth development will promote community growth.

This program is duplicated in southern India through our partner and head of community outreach, New Hope Compassion Missions.   

We are working to solve the disparities of generational wealth as it relates to race/caste systems.  

• There are three distinct challenges facing minority and women entrepreneurs:  limited access to capital, limited access to business networks and limited opportunity for business skills development.

•  There are disparities with access to capital and resources for Black Businesses.  Only 2% of Black-owned businesses received loans as part of the CARES Act, that's funded 4.9 million loans totaling more than $521 billion.  The most recent Federal Reserve data illustrates that Black business owners are denied loans at twice the rate of white business owners, with many small businesses aimed at making huge impacts in the community forced to shutter their doors with little hope for recovery. 

• Communities of color are impacted by the loss of needed programming, such as youth development and outreach centers that often serve the communities at low to no cost.  Although New Jersey boasts a 9% poverty rate, 21% of our children live in poverty.  The poverty rate in Andhra Pradesh is 24%.  Our vision is that the children who face poverty now are skilled for their futures.

Ten (10) business owners per service area, are selected as Program Operators.  A Program Operator is matched to manage a WE CAN program, such as our Life Development Programming for adults and young people, senior citizen and homelessness outreaches, food pantry, wellness or career training and community development projects.  Operators will be selected based on their own community development solutions. 

An additional 12 Program Operators of New Hope will run a similar program in southern rural India. This fully operating program includes an orphanage of 32 children and tackles poverty, community development and public health and safety on a significantly larger scale.  Nearly 

• These projects support the Program Operator’s business goals, as they market and develop their own community-based program on-site in collaboration with Village with an Open Heart.

• In turn, Village with an Open Heart/WE CAN will offer Program Operators full business development services, including financial assistance, to set them on a course of economic stability for themselves and our communities.    

• We use virtual and live formats to reach as many community members as possible. Health Cooking Classes are virtual and ingredients are delivered directly to families at no cost. 

WE CAN's target population is three-fold:  First and second, Black-owned businesses and Black communities and other communities who face economic disparities, as we have observed disparities in disadvantaged white and minority communities as well. 

Third, youth who live in poverty.  WE CAN believes that an observable presence of community members contributing directly to their lives will go far in community development, which in turn will contribute to the communities for generations to come. 

For our youth, our hope is that as they enter our program, they are continuously inspired by the "adults in the room", our Program Operators and other contributors of Village with an Open Heart and our partners, who over time, grow and advance their community.  

Black businesses with low-startup, especially in human services fields, are under served when it comes to financing. Larger nonprofit corporations often dominate the community presence.  Community outreach programs, such as youth and police associations, play an active role alongside many community volunteers.  

The Village with an Open Heart, this grants requesting agency and program developer, through our own development, have reached out to over 100 community stakeholders with at least some interest in developing their program.  Oftentimes, they've began the foundational process of building their organization, but have found the process daunting to proceed with on their own.  According to the most recent Census, of the 2 million Black small-businesses, only 124,000 are considered employer-firms.  

Many of these small businesses have services of critical need, as 32% of Black-owned businesses are in the health care category. Other popular categories include repair and maintenance, personal and laundry services, advertising firms, and auto dealerships.  Our WE CAN Life Development Program includes career development and training which in turn will directly affect our local economies by providing a steady and capable workforce to Black-businesses and communities.  

According to Project Diane, the number of startups founded by Black women more than doubled between 2016 and 2018. However, it doubled from less than 2% to less than 4%.  However, the 2-year fail rate is 40%, which beats the national average

Provide tools and opportunities for equitable access to jobs, credit, and generational wealth creation in communities of color.

We provide direct life and career assistance and training directly to the community.  Within the community we identify, support and promote Black female community contributors.  

Although we our funding has supported the mission of New Hope in Andhra Pradesh and we have won grants on behalf of Employment Network Team, Village with an OPen Heart is just beginning to seek funding on our own.  We are also pending with our nonprofit 501c3 application at this time.  

Our overall program is fully operating in the Southern New Jersey area with little to no capital.  We believe in even greater success with additional funding.  

We are innovative because our "Village" has been formed based on the needs of our community.  What we have found is that our service of business development and bringing community stakeholders together to bring the community of Lindenwold forward on a larger scale has become our identity.  

Whereas we began our process of finding which specific venture to focus on (youth development, substance abuse treatment, job development), we found that as we began contributing to the community, the demand for our assistance in helping other businesses create a foothold in the community became clear.  We have identified ten organizations that have began adopting some of our leadership development strategies and making additional moves towards business strategies.  

Program Operators from the United States are matched with a Program Operator from Andrah Pradesh for community building and consulting.  Our "Virtual Village" will connect two communities, bringing awareness and support to a southern rural village that faces extreme poverty and at risk circumstances.  

There are currently 5 small businesses/organizations served by Village with an Open Heart for business consulting.  

We are serving over 300 seniors in community development programs, over 100 families 

In Andhra Pradesh there are 12 Program Operators, 32 orphans in the children's home and approximately 600 residents in outreach/food bank per week.  

In one year we want to have 10 program operators starting.  By Year 3 we want to have a steady roll out of 10 program operators every third year in at least 4 states in the United States and 4 regions in Andhra Pradesh.  

We are already using measurable indicators towards our progress.  Village with an Open Heart keeps records of our programming and continue to see an increase in interest in each program we offer.  For instance.  Our roll-out for our senior outreach program was expected to be 95 individuals but increased to 200 within 48 hours based on word of mouth alone.  

Our Life Development Program is online and progress is submitted directly to Program Operators and the data is collected.  Our surveys regularly indicate to us the progress of our program.  

Full time Staff Village with an Open Heart: 3

Part time Staff/Volunteers: 2

Contractor: 2

New Hope Grantee:  1

Our team is well positioned to deliver. We have over 75 years of collective experience in life, community and business development.  The Village has been operating in business development since 2018.  

As a Black-owned business we see where we can be of most effect to our community and how our work can help communities thrive not just in the short term but for generations to come.  By connecting our program to other businesses and giving community members a stake in our success, we have no doubt that "WE CAN:  We Exist:  Community Action Network" will be a recognizable name when it comes to the story of America's post-pandemic recovery.

In addition to Black-owned female business owners as our Program Operators, 20 percent of our Program Operators will not come from this demographic.  Although we recognize the disparities of Black, female owned companies we do not wish to exclude others who have faced barriers to success.  

Since poverty knows no color, we wish to duplicate our program in all areas where a class is disadvantaged.  Our fellowship with New Hope addresses the issues of the caste system in India. We also want to reach out to Appalachian and urban impovershed predominately White communities, Latino communities, Indigenous and immigrant communities within New Jersey.  

We're applying to SOLVE because we want someone to hear us and believe in us.  To be completely honest with you, as a faith-led mission we certainly feel led to at least learn from MIT Solve about how to become a viable social enterprise.  We know what we can do.  We also believe we've proven a lot in the past few years and are ready to tackle more.  That will take funding. We have the people, we have the need and we have the opportunity to do great things in our town.  Solve can help us and ten other organizations overcome the financial obstacles to springboard our programs and give us the tools to go further and take our communities along with us.

We ask for help in all areas.  Especially financial.  But we know the value of mentors and contributors.  We would also appreciate assistance in  product development for our Program Operator partners and technology as we expand globally.  Although we'll implement our own monitoring system we invite oversight and support. 

We ask that our identity and goals be respected, even if others feel their identities are more value. Because that's what we want our community members to understand that they are just as important right where they are

We ask that MIT provide a certificate curriculum for our career development program.  We would also like to partner with United Way or Salvation Army. 

We have an initiative "Lindenwalkers" named after our town.  It operates 5 days a week. This program is designed to improve the health of our community while improving the sight by making some of the walks a community cleanup.

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Our program supports social entrepreneurs in South Jersey.  We will use the prize to advance 10 social entrepreneurs, including ourselves over the next 3 years. 

Our Youth Development Programming in the United States and Andhra Pradesh are designed to promote community development in the future.  Our youth will participate in a robust STEM program that will promote entrepreneurship and skills education.

The digital age makes WE CAN possible, by linking several organizations around the world for one common project:  community development and creating opportunities for generational wealth. 

WE CAN Program will focus on black female owned small businesses.  We will promote their endeavors in all areas to help them achieve optimum success.