Staten Island – The Island of Opportunity
Staten Island – The Island of Opportunity
While Queens has long been noted for its diverse immigrant entrepreneur community, we very much like what we see happening on Staten Island lately. Here’s a look at three BCNA clients we think are emblematic of the growing diversity and entrepreneurial spirit on Staten Island.
Staten Island Job Creators
At BCNA we are extremely proud to have worked with over 4000 businesses. But even more important – and the reason we think it is so critical to support small businesses – is the number of jobs those businesses have created with our support. Yelena Gordiyevskaya, who has a degree in early childhood education, started the Smiles Around Us Day Care Center on Staten Island in 1998 with her business partner Svetlana Kazakevich and today they have 14 
employees. We were delighted to provide Yelena with her first microloan in 1998 and, more recently, a loan of $35,000, which will enable Smiles Around Us to invest in new equipment for their growing business. Yelena, a refugee from the former Soviet Union, is not only an entrepreneur but mentor as well who generously offers her advice and expertise to some of the new day care center owners BCNA supports. Every job created helps to create a stronger community and New Americans like Yelena have helped make Staten Island stronger and more economically vibrant. Now that’s something to smile about!
Yohngema’s Elegant Treasures
Another Staten Island business we are proud to be associated with is Yohngema’s Elegant Treasures, a children’s clothing boutique located on Port 
Richmond Avenue. Owner and manager Helen Sona is an entrepreneur with
a colorful personality and a wardrobe to match. Helen’s boutique is very popular among Staten Island’s growing Hispanic community, who come to purchase special outfits for festive occasions like birthdays, communion, festivals, and weddings. While most of her current merchandise is for children, Helen is adding a select line of women’s clothing as well with the help of a loan from BCNA earmarked to add new inventory. We’re pleased to be helping Helen add even more treasures to Yohngema’s Elegant Treasure.
A First Home on Staten Island
To date, over 750 families and individuals have completed BCNA’s First Home Program, 83 of whom have already become home-owners and 5 used their savings and match grants to renovate their old homes. One of the latest is BCNA client Lyudmila 
Pertsovskaya and her husband Vsevolod, refugees from Belarus, were able to achieve their American Dream when they purchased a house on Staten Island a few months ago for themselves and their three children. The new home-owners worked overtime and saved for many years to qualify for a savings match of $4,000 from BCNA’s IDA Program for Refugees. The program, funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services, provides down payment assistance for first-time home buyers, and allows hard-working immigrant families like Lyudmila’s to truly call Staten Island home.