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ACCION New Mexico and Other Small Business Development Agencies Work to Better Serve Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
WESST Corp, ACCION New Mexico and the New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund, three of New Mexico’s premier small business development agencies, are forming a partnership to better serve New Mexicans with disabilities.

The strategic partnership arose from a planning session, sponsored by the McCune Charitable Foundation, designed to identify ways these organizations could better serve entrepreneurs in New Mexico.

“With the unique strengths that ACCION, the New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund and WESST Corp each bring, the collaboration is distinctly poised to make a significant difference in bringing entrepreneurship opportunities to people with disabilities,” says Anne Haines Yatskowitz, president and CEO of ACCION New Mexico.

Cumulatively, these organizations have served the state’s entrepreneurs for 50 years, with a focus on providing training, technical assistance and loan funds to underserved populations in New Mexico such as low-income individuals, women and minority groups. Now these organizations are leveraging their resources to provide increased services for the largest minority group in the United States -- persons with disabilities.

In 2002 in New Mexico, there were 300,000 people counted as having disabilities between the ages of 18-64, or 25 percent of the state’s population. (Source: Disability in New Mexico, April 2002, New Mexico Dept. of Health.) Almost 10 percent of New Mexico’s working-age population suffer from sensory, mobility, cognitive, self-care, leaving the home or work disabilities. For these individuals, who may have difficulty in traditional work environments, entrepreneurship is a viable alternative.

“People with disabilities are a natural fit for entrepreneurship -– they have the desire to create a work environment that suites their needs and supports them financially. We aim to make the dream of owning a business a reality for anyone with that passion,” says Agnes Noonan, executive director of WESST Corp.

Key to each organization’s mission is creating positive economic change in New Mexico. Considering that people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as people without a disability (Source: Chartbook on Work Disability in the United States), these organizations believe providing people with disabilities with tools for self-sufficiency is a critical need.

“The products and services of each of these organizations assist people in developing the skills and assets, such as a business, they need to be self-reliant,” says Brian Bone, executive director of the New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund.

The Abilities Fund granted a $7,500 Microenterprise Access Grant to the NMCDLF, ACCION New Mexico and WESST Corp to be used to assist with marketing and outreach efforts to New Mexicans with disabilities. The Abilities Fund, a non-profit agency headquartered in Iowa, is committed to the economic advancement of people with disabilities and devoted to the fullest expression of their entrepreneurial spirit in all its diversity, strength and boundless originality.

“The investment to the partnership in New Mexico represents our goal of full inclusion for people with disabilities,” says Patti Lind, executive director of The Abilities Fund. “Because these organizations provide both access to technical assistance and microfinance, they are well positioned to encourage and advance microbusiness development in New Mexico’s disability community.”

ACCION New Mexico, WESST Corp and the NMCDLF see this Access Grant as the first step to better serving entrepreneurs with disabilities. The organizations intend to seek out new sources of funding to develop additional materials and services for entrepreneurs with disabilities in the future.

Contact:
Leslie Hoffman
ACCION New Mexico Communications Director
(505) 243-8844 ext. 238
(505) 270-0285 cell