Somali & Ethiopian/Eritrean Business Program

All small businesses in Seattle, including immigrant and low-income communities, deserve access to quality technical assistance and financing to launch and grow small businesses. After successfully launching and developing Somali, Ethiopian and Vietnamese business training programs in 2011, we recognized the need for further work in the East African communities in 2012.

With support from the City of Seattle and Washington State Microenterprise Association, Washington C.A.S.H. spent the first three months of 2012 working as a staff to outreach to the community and tweak our East African program to make it even more culturally relevant than last year. Somali trainer, Mohamud Yussuf, liaised between the East African community and Washington C.A.S.H. team, enabling us to develop a program that draws on the strengths of both communities. Together we developed an East African program that consists of 1) targeted business training classes taught in a five-session sequence in a combination of Somali and English, 2) individual coaching and 3) referrals to additional business development resources, including those available through Washington C.A.S.H. So far, we have provided business training for over 100 under-resourced East African entrepreneurs in King County.