We Are South LA
8.29.2022
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LISC StoriesEconomic Development
During the pandemic, we saw how diverse-owned businesses faced barriers to accessing available grants, loans, and training opportunities to keep their doors open. LISC LA worked to break down the walls and make these programs as accessible as possible for everyone.
With generous funding from Wells Fargo, LISC LA’s South LA Digital Literacy Mentorship program provided South LA-based businesses with one-on-one advising to improve their digital and technological presence and skills and take their businesses to the next level. The cohort of businesses recently graduated from the program, and we are supporting their digital presence through We Are South LA, a video campaign featuring eight of the businesses and how they make South LA a vibrant place to live, play, and do business. Shop at, dine at, visit, and support these driven, resilient, and talented small businesses who we’ve had the pleasure to work with.
In celebration of national Black Business Month, 2 Urban Girls is promoting several of these businesses and why it’s important to support small, diverse-owned businesses. Here’s what they said:
The Salt Eaters Bookshop
“You could go to [other bookstores] but a lot of the customers here know that when they come, they’re getting something that the algorithm cannot produce for you. There’s something really intimate and special about local small businesses.” Asha Grant, Owner
Synergy Accounting Solutions
“I grew up in South LA. I live in South LA. So, to be able to service the area where I live means that I’m helping build a community that is oftentimes forgotten.” Merriet Walker, CPA
My Daddy’s Recipes
“Our community is small, but it’s powerful. It’s very giving on both ends. They give to me, and I give to them. So, it means a lot to me that I am a South-Central based wellness company… you don’t have to lose your culture to eat healthier.” Nekia Hattley, Owner
Lura’s Kitchen
“It makes me very happy to be able to make other people happy - to take what I have and make where I am better.” Lura Daniels-Ball, Owner
Ninth Wave Custom Framing
“You get more of a personal connection when you shop locally in a sense that we’re going to put the love on it. We’re going to make it really speak.” Tracy Mitchell, Secretary
Blacker The Berry Juicery
“It’s important to support small/minority owned businesses because it helps strengthen local economies. When small businesses flourish, so do their communities and when communities flourish, the racial wealth gap slowly begins to close, creating sustainable change for black families to close, creating lifelong change for black families.” Dominique Burrell, Owner
Billionaire Leadership Club
“True ascension can only be achieved as we not only embrace collective diversity, but also view it as our greatest known human asset.” Matthew Blackwood, CEO
Delicious At The Dunbar
“Unfortunately, not many want to invest in this community, it’s been ignored for so long. We’re trying to bring an investment that will hopefully make it thrive.” - Adriana Cortes, Owner
