These last two weeks, CAMEO staff has been out and about. This week Carolina is in Washington, DC, meeting with agency staff and legislators and attending her first AEO board meeting. At the SBA, she talked to the staff who are working on re-authorization of the SBDC and WBC and at the USDA, she met with staff to advocate for their business development programs. On the legislative side, she met with Representative Judy Chu and Maxine Waters’ staff about the work CAMEO is doing in LA to form a collaborative, as well as diversity in responsible small business lending and access to capital issues.
Heidi attended RISE Financial Pathways’ Power Luncheon at LA’s new soccer stadium on Wednesday, where she saw Constance Anderson of PCR and Melanie Rae, WOVEN’s program director. RISE is building housing for homeless veterans and will offer co-working and business incubation services. Then she headed to the CALED conference, where she saw many CAMEO members and friends including Patty Hess of 3CORE and Karen Rich of the USDA (see photo). On Thursday, Heidi along with Mary Anne Petrillo of West Business Development Center and Heather Gurewitz of EDFC spoke to the CALED attendees about the Local Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Program (LEEP) and our project in Mendocino and Lake County.Finally, we want to thank Samaschool and all the members that attended Training Independent Entrepreneurs for Success (TIES) last week at the Wells Fargo community space. CAMEO is forming a new cohort that will deliver the Samaschool training for gig economy workers.
Coming up is the MicroLenders Forum in a few weeks in San Francisco. Hope to see you there!
