The South Central LA Regional Center is a Anchor Leader for Economic Inclusion in South LA.

The South Central LA Regional Center (SCLARC) contracts with the California Department of Developmental Services to coordinate services for people with developmental disabilities and their families. Anchored on Western and Adams in South LA, SCLARC is one of seven regional centers in LA County and a part of a network of 21 regional centers statewide.

SCLARC provides place-based services to almost 15,000 clients each year and is supported by more than 900 community vendors and local small businesses. In 2016, SCLARC leadership determined that in order to better serve their clients, they needed to take a greater role in the growth and sustainability of the 900+ service providers that contract with the regional center.

Anchored on Western and Adams in South LA, SCLARC is one of seven regional centers in LA County and a part of a network of 21 regional centers statewide.

In partnership with their affiliated CDC, Friends of SCLARC, LA LISC has provided a HUD Section 4 grant to support the launch of a Small Business Technical Assistance Program and Micro-Loan Fund to address the capacity needs of these vendors that provide services to their majority low-income clients with disabilities. Due to the place-based nature of their services, their vendors are often local and minority owned “mom and pop shops” that may need assistance in establishing their business infrastructure and accessing capital in order to both sustain their contracts and compete for larger ones. With a $180M annual spend on vendor services, a rising client base and additional contract opportunities coming in the next year, we hope that SCLARC’s small business program will enable the local vendors to both preserve and grow their businesses and create new jobs South Central LA.

LA LISC sees this partnership as an exciting opportunity to pilot Anchor strategies that support inclusive economic development in the low to moderate income neighborhoods that we serve.

The Health Care sector is one of the fastest growing industries in California and we hope that this program will help us better understand the challenges and opportunities that these businesses faces in sustaining their enterprises and providing living wage jobs. Additionally, given the network of Regional, this program has the potential to be replicated throughout the County.