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Latest Update from the African Development Center - January 2013
Hello Friends,

The African Development Center is pleased to wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

While 2012 was filled with amazing accomplishments, opportunities, and challenges, we are very excited for the many new endeavors to come in 2013.

As always, thank you for you interest and support of ADC, and please enjoy the following brief details on our recent work and upcoming events.

2012: A Year to Report


ADC understands that for community economic development work to be both effective and comprehensive, a great deal of information needs to be obtained about the community itself. Such information as the current needs, impediments, and possibilities, is necessary data to determine how and where efforts should be taken. 

While the African Development Center has a strong history of conducting unprecedented reporting of these factors for the communities in which we work, this past year proved the most ambitious in this regard. The following are the most notable products of these undertakings:

Regional African-Owned Businesses
Two reports focused on determining the current landscape and background of the African-owned business communities in the Greater Minnesota Regions of Rochester (download report) and Willmar
(download report).

Cedar Riverside Studies
Two studies of the Minneapolis region near our Main Office were expertly conducted to determine both the Commercial Real Estate situation
(download report) as well as the current availability and usage of Community Space (download report).

Economic Impact
Perhaps the most exciting report released in 2012, the analysis conducted by the WIlder Foundation shows the broad and deep economic impact of the Business Development, Housing, and Financial Education work of the African Development Center (download report).

Also related to economic impact, was the recent release of the new Minnesota 2020 Made in Minnesota report, entitled Building Cross-Cultural Commerce. Authored by Lee Engerstrom, this document highlights the positive economic impact of the new and growing community of immigrants to Minnesota, and features the efforts of ADC and many of our clients. You can download the report here, as well as read coverage of its release by both the Rochester Post Bulletin and Kare 11 (featuring ADC's own social-venture - Afro Deli).

Ahmed Samatar to Lead the
January ADC Commerce and Community Conversation


To begin this year’s series of roundtable discussions, the African Development Center is proud to announce that Ahmed Samatar, will be the lead presenter. A writer, academic, and former dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College, Professor Samatar tossed his hat into the political arena as a candidate in the recent Presidential elections of Somalia.

These community discussions were developed as the ADC Business Breakfast Roundtable in 2010 to better facilitate dialogue in our community, connect individuals who otherwise may not cross paths, and to increase knowledge of institutions, systems, laws, tools, etc. for a more informed community. Since its inception, the roundtable has been a great success, drawing together people from all backgrounds and touching on numerous topics – prompting us to rename them ADC Commerce and Community Conversations.

As with all Conversations, this session will be held at the African Development Center Main Office in Minneapolis. Normally held the third Thursday of the month, this event will be Thursday, January 24th from 7:30 - 9:00am.

Please sign up, and mark this date on your calendar. If you can’t make it in, this will be streaming live on the event page, as well as our Facebook page!!!

You can signup by going to our website or contacting Matthew Holm at mholm@adcminnesota.org. If you have any questions, feel free to call us at 612-333-4772 or 1-877-232-4775.

A special thank you to the sponsors of these community meetings:



A long-time supporter of ADC, this series is funded in part by the City of Minneapolis Great Streets Business District Support Program.
 
and


A new social venture of the African Development Center, this program provides such services as accounting assistance and tax preparation to the growing community of African-owned business in Minnesota.

 

Announcing ADC Business Consulting!!


The African Development Center is excited to introduce a new program of business-related services to better reach the changing and growing needs of the African community across the state.

Entitled ADC Business Consulting, this program will expand ADC's culturally conscious technical assistance to better meet the new demand for such things as accounting services and tax preparation to a growing number of established immigrant businesses in the region. This is a necessary expansion of ADC’s comprehensive community economic development work, and will prove a key component in the efforts to support this new American community to become better equipped, educated, and robust economic contributors throughout the state of Minnesota.

As the African business community grows in size and sophistication, so do the needs for more extensive technical services to not only maintain these businesses, but move them to the next level of competition with more established, mainstream businesses. ADC is uniquely positioned to overcome specific barriers of language and culture to most efficiently provide these services, and bring these clients to a new level of self-sufficiency.

We are enthusiastic about the positive impacts of this new program, and invite you to contact us with any questions, or to inquire about becoming a client. Spaces are still available, but filling up fast - so please call us soon at 1-877-232-4775.

New Email Updates for ADC


You may have noticed a slight change in our email updates. This is just one of a many recent technological upgrades ADC we will be finalizing throughout the next few months.
All a part of our ongoing efforts to bring better efficiency in our work, an increased impact to our clients, and greater awareness of success to our supporters and fans. Please feel free to contact us with any concerns or suggestions you may have for any of these changes at 1-877-232-4775.
While we are very excited about the many added benefits of this new email service, the amount of profile data we were able to easily transfer was extremely limited. Therefore, we are asking you to help us out by updating your profile information so that we may better provide you with only the information that interests you.
Thank you for your understanding and consideration!
Update your Profile
As we continuously point out, the work of ADC is dependent on assistance from a wide range of individuals throughout an even wider range of industries and sectors. As a result, we rely on the gracious efforts of our friends to spread news about the efforts and accomplishments of the African Development Center. Please do consider clicking one of the links below to share this update with those you feel may be interested:
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If you have any questions about these or any ADC event, feel free to contact us at 612-333-4772 or 1-877-232-4775. As always, we greatly appreciate your time, interest and support of the African Development Center.

Your financial support for ADC is always welcome, especially as we expand the reach and impact of the work we are doing to assist the growing African community of Minnesota to start and sustain successful businesses, build wealth, and promote community reinvestment. Please consider providing a contribution through our website or Paypal:


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Thank you,

Executive Director

Copyright © 2013 African Development Center, All rights reserved.
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