Adelante means rise up, move forward. Mujeres means women. Empresas means small business. Working as a VISTA Volunteer for Adelante Mujeres, Ali Brown recognized a need for additional services for small business owners. She thought up, created, sought funding and implemented Adelante Empresas, a comprehensive, small business development program designed to provide local Latino entrepreneurs the capacity to overcome societal barriers and develop the skills necessary to launch successful businesses.

Contribute to Ali’s voting process by sharing a review after the article below.

Adelante Empresas currently works with eight Latino owned small businesses and is planning to expand in the next year to include local farmers and other aspiring entrepreneurs. In order to further advance this program and her career, Brown will be attending Bainbridge Graduate Institute in the fall to receive an MBA in sustainable business.

Ali has dedicated her skills and friendly attitude to make this program a success. She is a hard worker and a very dedicated individual. Nominated by Gina Bell

(photos by FAITH CATHCART/The Oregonian )

Margarita Plancarte cleans a client's bathroom. Plancarte and her business partners hope to enlarge their business with the help of Adelante Empresas, a new program that supports Latino entrepreneurs.

Gabriela Perez, a partner in Cleaning Wizards, a house cleaning business, polishes the  glass doors in a client's living room. Perez and her partners benefited from Adelante Empresas, a new program that helps start and grow small Latino businesses. The program is only a year old but has been very successful.

Alison Brown is originally from St. Paul, MN and has been living in Oregon for six and half years. She came to Oregon to attend Lewis and Clark College, where she received a BA in International Affairs and Political Economics.

After graduating she spent six months traveling through Latin America working with NGOs and microfinance organizations in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay. In 2008, she started working as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer at Adelante Mujeres, a non-profit based in Forest Grove, OR. While at Adelante, she has helped to launch two new programs that assist the local Latino community develop personal assets.

During her first year at Adelante, she launched an Individual Development Account program which provides a three-to-one matched savings for low-income individuals to acquire an asset. Participants can save to go back to school or to launch a small business.

The program delegated over $130,000 in matching funds to 25 participants in 2009 alone. In order to support the individuals completing this program, Brown along with other Adelante staff, created Adelante Empresas.

This is a comprehensive small business support program. The program works with local entrepreneurs to help them develop and launch successful, environmentally sustainable small businesses and work towards economic self-sufficiency.

Find out more:

Ali Brown of Adelante Empresas,
503.992.0078

www.adelanteempresas.org.