By Rudy Carrasco from Partners Worldwide
New Orleans-based St. Roch CDC started its first business class for local entrepreneurs in August. A member of Partners Worldwide’s global network since 2014, St. Roch CDC’s commitment to local empowerment is a ray of hope for community residents.
A New York Times article marking 10 years since Hurricane Katrina noted that New Orleans’s continues to be a metro with “two cities. One is booming, more vibrant than ever… the other is returning to pre-Katrina realities of poverty and routine violence, but with a new sense of dislocation for many as well.”
The leaders at St. Roch CDC are determined to help change this narrative by walking alongside local residents to create businesses and prosperity for themselves. Ben McLeish, executive director, says, “Entrepreneurial activity is 56% higher here than the national average. We are so excited about walking with [local entrepreneurs] as they grow or start their own small business.”
The 18 entrepreneurs in the current business class — called Launch NOLA — include a woman considering a food truck-based restaurant after years of selling food at second line parades. Another entrepreneur has a fitness-focused concept that could be scalable. All class participants are incredibly excited, says McLeish.
The Launch NOLA class is not St. Roch CDC’s first effort to support local business development. To date they have provided an array of assistance to small businesses and nonprofits including Staple Goods Gallery, Studios and Art Collective, A Desire for Change and Enlightened Through Travel. St. Roch CDC is also a Kiva Zip Trustee and endorsed a $3,000 loan to Koreole, a Korean-Creole fusion restaurant that started in April.
In addition to support for local entrepreneurs, St. Roch CDC created and operates Restoration Thrift, a thrift store in the community with a quadruple bottom line: job creation; diversified funding stream for the ministry; excellent and affordable shopping for customers; and opportunities for community residents to give back through in-kind donations and volunteer service.
McLeish began living in New Orleans in 2002, when he was a staffer at Desire Street Ministries, and holds a masters degree in nonprofit management from the University of Georgia. He is grateful to God for the growth of St. Roch CDC’s business support initiative and desires to engage businesspeople in mentoring partnerships. “We are working to recruit mentors, people that will champion the cause of these entrepreneurs,” he says. “As a business person you get offered opportunities to sit on a finance committee or write a check, but rarely are you asked to be what God gifted you to be.”
Partners Worldwide is working with Ben to identify a Business Affiliate Team to help St. Roch CDC achieve its goal to ignite local entrepreneurship in the 8th Ward.
“In the world of business as mission, the allies are few and far between,” says McLeish. “Having friends like Partners Worldwide championing our efforts helps us press on and support underserved urban entrepreneurs.”
Pray about the growth of the Launch NOLA initiative and for the identification of a Business Affiliate team to partner with St. Roch CDC.
The opportunity is ripe for local impact. “St Roch will be an influence in developing career opportunities in that community,” says Denny Vander Molen, President of Vermeer MidSouth and business volunteer with Partners Worldwide’s Mississippi-based partnerships. “With the challenges seen over the last decade and even prior to the storm, St. Roch will be the change agent as they support solid business growth through value based instruction and mentoring.”