Blogs

Make sure to tune in on February 27 at 6 am on Univision's Al Despertar. Kira Vilanova will be interviewing members of the Mission Asset-Building Fair Planning Committee and promoting our upcoming Feria de la Prosperidad.

Among the organizations featured on the show will be Mission San Francisco Federal Credit Union, La Cocina, Mission Economic Development Association, Mission Community Council and of course Mission Asset Fund, all of whom are coming together to host the 2009 Mission Asset Building Fair. The show highlights programs and services available through these organizations as well as workshops and information that will be provided at the fair to help low-income families and individuals save and invest their money.

For more information about the 2009 Mission Asset Building Fair, please call (415) 738-2559.

On Wednesday, November 19th, MAF convened it’s first “Charla Financiera” or Financial Talk about the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) process at Centro del Pueblo in the Mission. The event featured IRS speakers, Xavier Guerrero and Patrick Brown, ACORN representative Graciela Reyna and Ricardo Calderon from CARECEN. The event convened community members and experts as well as community organizations in an effort to provide crucial and needed information about the ITIN application process, benefits and the resources available to help people obtain the ITIN.

As MAF helps individuals to asset build and save, it recognized the ITIN as the paramount gateway activity to increase participation in the financial mainstream. Obtaining the ITIN is the first step towards gaining financial stability for many working-class Latino immigrants who don’t qualify for a social security number; with an ITIN they can access mainstream financial services for cheaper fees.

Nancy Kaufman is a bi-lingual Latina that operates an event planning business called Balloon Art Productions and Rental. Nancy was operating her business out of her home and decided that she needed to expand her operations. She received small business technical assistance from the Mission Economic Development Agency and attended small business classes at ALAS (Alternativas Para Latinas En Autosuficiencia). It was at ALAS that she met other women interested in starting their own micro-enterprises. Nancy and her new colleagues attended MAF's Orientación Sobre Como Formar Cooperativas. Nancy quickly decided that she was ready to convert her sole proprietor business into a worker owner cooperative and invited her new friends to join her. I assisted the women in creating the organizational and legal structure for for their cooperative. Gabrielle Lessard from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development provided the legal oversight for the development of the operating agreement. While converting a regular business into a cooperative was challenging, the women were diligent about creatimg the legal structure as well as making important decisions for how it would function.