BCNA Loves Staten Island
BCNA Loves Staten Island
Recently I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel on Bolstering Immigrant and Minority Entrepreneurs in Staten Island. The panel discussion, which was funded by The Staten Island Foundation, was organized by the Jonathan Bowles, Executive Director at the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a Manhattan based think tank dedicated to independent research on key issues facing New York and other cities.
Joining me on the panel were Ram Cherukuri, founder and owner of New York Fragrance; 
Gonzalo Mercado, Executive Director of El Centro del Inmigrante, a storefront immigrant day worker center; Kudrat Rakhimoff, Co-founder of Fencing Concrete, LLC, a residential concrete fencing company; and Wayne Roye, CEO of Troi.net, a full service IT company based in Staten Island. Betsy Dubovsky, Executive Director of The Staten Island Foundation, and Debi Rose, Council Member for Northern Staten Island, also spoke passionately about Staten Island as a welcoming place for New Americans.
Staten Island is often referred to as the "forgotten borough." While thousands of tourists crowd onto the ferry so that they can get the perfect view of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, they rarely go beyond the terminal. That also makes Staten Island particularly attractive to immigrants, because of the affordable real estate and the small ethnic communities which give their members a sense of safety and privacy.
While panelists were proud of their association with Staten Island, they all agreed that there was still much that could be done to make the borough more attractive to visitors. 
Local politicians are hoping that a 600 foot high observation wheel and a proposed 500,000 sq. foot outlet mall will be a first step in bringing more visitor dollars to Staten Island. But my fellow panelists felt that, in addition to encouraging residents to support local businesses, technological and social media support should be given to local entrepreneurs so they can attract more residents and tourists to their ethnic restaurants and stores. Immigrant entrepreneurs are often not aware of resources available to help them or how microenterprise programs can help them promote their services better.
Staten Island holds a special place in our hearts at the Business Center for New Americans, because many of the refugees we serve call it home. Of the 87 clients who graduated from BCNA’s First Home Program and bought homes, 25 have bought those homes on Staten Island. And we have made over $600,000 in loans – ranging from $500 to $35,000 — to entrepreneurs who live in Staten Island.
Many of the smallest loans were disbursed to grandmothers in the Liberian refugee community who often go to the farms in New Jersey to pick vegetables and bring them back to sell to members of their community. While our interest income on these loans are negligible, we are pleased that the farm trips take the refugee women out of the projects and blaring TVs, to an agricultural environment that is more familiar to them. The modest profit they make is important because they use it to supplement their food budgets for themselves and, often, the grandchildren they are caring for.
The largest loans – of $25,000 and over – were made to businesses like Smiles R Us, a successful child care center, enabling it to purchase its first location and expand to a second location, increasing its employees to over 50.
BCNA plans to continue its commitment to Staten Island, funding and providing resources for the immigrants, refugees and entrepreneurs that make it such a special borough. Photos were taken by the talented Giavanni Alves!