Community Investments
Volume 11; No. 2; September 1999
District Bulletin
Community Development Venture Capital Conference in Seattle
The Community Development Venture Capital Alliance's 1999 Annual Conference
will be held in Seattle, Washington on December 14 -15, 1999. The conference
provides an opportunity for leading practitioners in the field of community
development venture capital to network and learn new economic development
strategies. In fact, a business-school style case study has been specifically
designed to educate participants interested in using community development
venture capital as an economic development strategy to improve the lives
of low-income individuals. Conference participants will analyze a situation
involving Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp and its portfolio company,
Manufacturing Services Corp, under the direction of Yale School of Management
Professor Katherine O'Regan.
For more information, contact Judy Burton at (218) 727-7248 (jburton@cdvca.org)
or visit the Web site at www.cdvca.org.
Banking on the Future Kick-off at Federal Reserve
Banking on the Future, a model financial literacy program, made its debut
at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in July to a group of about
60 bankers from throughout the Bay Area. Pioneered by Operation Hope,
Inc., a non-profit investment banking organization in Los Angeles, Banking
on the Future promotes financial literacy in schools and partners with
banks to operate the program. It teaches youth from under-served communities
the basics of a checking and savings account and the importance of credit
and investment.
For more information or to involve your financial institution in the
program, contact John Bryant, founder, at Operation Hope at (213) 891-2900.
Investment Fund To Provide CRA Test Help For Banks
CRA Fund Advisors, a Florida investment company, has created a mutual
fund to assist banks in making CRA-qualified investments. According to
Kenneth H. Thomas, Ph.D., principal, the fund has the majority of its
holdings in AAA-rated securities, and the balance of the investments in
A-rated or better securities. Thomas states that the fund offers a portfolio
of CRA "qualified investments" with a greater credit quality
than many other CRA investment options. For the purpose of earning credit
on the CRA Investment Test, the fund specifically designates securities
to each investing institution. However, as is the case with any mutual
fund, each shareholder of the fund indirectly owns an undivided interest
in all of the fund's investments.
For more information, contact Kenneth H. Thomas, Ph.D., principal, CRA
Fund Advisors at 1751 West Cypress Creek Road, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
33309, or telephone (954) 522-9525, toll-free (877) CRA-1977.
1999 Washington Statewide Housing Conference
Help increase affordable housing choices for all Washington residents
by attending the annual statewide conference, Housing Washington 1999.
It will be held on November 1-3 at the Doubletree Hotel, Seattle Airport.
The Washington State Housing Finance Commission and Washington State Department
of Community, Trade and Economic Development will co-present.
For more information, call (800) 767-HOME (ext.4336) or visit the Web
site at: www.wshfc.org.
Fed's Research And Information Center Now On Web
The Consumer and Economic Development Research and Information Center
(CEDRIC) is a new, public communications Web site launched on July 1 by
the Federal Reserve System. The site provides timely information about
major events and publications related to consumer, community, and economic
development issues across the country. Useful features of CEDRIC include
Web links to each of the twelve Reserve Bank sites, from which you can
download regional consumer and economic development information, and access
to research articles, working papers, studies, and Community Affairs publications.
You can find CEDRIC on the Web at: http://www.chicagofed.org/cedric/cedric.html.
Business Capital And Credit Research Now Available On Web
Research papers and abstracts regarding small business access to capital
and credit are currently available on the Federal Reserve's Web site.
Distinguished economists and scholars from throughout the country submitted
the research earlier this year for the Fed's academic conference entitled
Business Access to Capital and Credit. Topics of interest include:
Papers on these and other subjects can be downloaded from the Web at:
www.chicagofed.org/cedric/cedric.html.
Dialogue Guide May Help With Performance Context
Need to know what's really going on in the communities you serve? The
Coalition for Healthier Cities and Communities (CHCC), a nonprofit, national
organization may be able to help. They've recently published a dialogue
guide entitled Healthy People in Healthy Communities. The guide is an
easy-to-follow resource for anyone interested in bringing together groups
of people to discuss common concerns, community issues and potential solutions.
CHCC even has "dialogue coaches" who can help you develop a plan to ensure
your success.
If you're looking for ways to learn more about community development
needs, consider hosting a dialogue of executive directors, potential borrowers,
local residents or other community leaders.
For more information about the Coalition and the how the guide works,
or to read summaries of dialogues from other parts of the country, check
out the Coalition's Web site at www.healthycommunities.org. For free copies
of the guide, fax your name, company affiliation, address, and telephone
number to Judith Vaughn at (415) 393-1920.
California SBTA Directory Now Available
The Community Affairs Unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
is proud to introduce its new resource guide: Small Business Technical
Assistance Providers in California. The directory contains information
on and opportunities for involvement with more than 60 economic development
assistance organizations in California. Entries in the directory are based
on written responses received from organizations that responded to our
statewide survey of small business technical assistance providers throughout
California.
In addition to the directory, a series of industry recommendations was
published earlier this year in partnership with the California Reinvestment
Committee. The recommendations are published in a guidebook entitled Sustainable
Economic Development: Developing Effective Partnerships between Banks
and Technical Assistance Providers.
To order a complimentary copy of the directory and/or guidebook, please
fax request, your name, company affiliation, address, and telephone number
to Judith Vaughn at (415) 393-1920.
Electronic Guide For Small Business Entrepreneurs
INFOtrepreneur is a free, six module, small business start up guide for
your desktop. It is a handy, one-stop information source for current and
potential entrepreneurs. The electronic guide provides comprehensive,
step-by-step business solutions and data that provide accurate information,
resources, products and services which could help accelerate progress,
save precious time, and help the entrepreneur to make informed decisions.
The manual's user-friendly format includes free Internet downloads and
profiles of major business products and services.
For more information, contact Theo van der Merwe by telephone at (679)
672-1089 or by e-mail at tech@infotrepreneur.com.
Economic Education Program Satisfies CRA Criteria
Bankers may want to consider Junior Achievement's (JA) innovative, economic
education program as one option in fulfilling their CRA requirements.
JA programs are designed to train students from kindergarten through 12th
grade with work-force-ready economic skills and knowledge. The majority
of the programs are delivered to low-income students. One of JA's primary
programs is called the Whole School Program. Banks and businesses may
fund classrooms, grade levels, or adopt an entire school. Banks can receive
Investment Test credit when they provide funding to sponsor a Whole School
Program in a low-income neighborhood. They can also receive Service Test
credit when their employees volunteer in the sponsored school.
For more information about Junior Achievement programs, contact Senior
Development Manager, Julie Ringwood, at (323) 957-1878, ext. 20.
Spotlight on Community Affairs
Sovereign Lending Task Forces continue to work on the resolution of credit
issues on Native American reservations in the Pacific Northwest. Several
"real deals" have resulted, including micro and small business loans and
infrastructure development on several reservations.
Brownfield Redevelopment takes center stage in the Financing Initiative
for Environmental Restoration (FIER). The initiative, led by The Development
Fund in San Francisco, seeks to create a loan pool for financing brownfield
projects in the state of California. If successful, the model may be replicated
in other 12th District states.
A Small Business Technical Assistance directory for the state of California
was published in partnership with the California Reinvestment Committee.
This directory was the result of a series of SBTA forums that were held
throughout California last year.
Innovative Partnerships are helping us leverage our resources in several
new initiatives including: Los Angeles' One-Stop Capital Shop and Virtual
Network, Economic Development Loan Securitization, Capital for Communities,
Banking on the Future, and Rural Nevada 2000.
Credit Scoring and Its Relationship to Fair Lending is the topic of ongoing
research in San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland and Washington, DC. Several
issues related to mortgage scoring have surfaced, and will serve as the
basis for a series of papers to be published in this and other Federal
Reserve publications in the coming year. The series will highlight leading
industry perspectives and will offer a number of best practice options.
Community Affairs' Core Products - quarterly banker roundtables, community
profiles, training opportunities, and technical assistance are the cornerstones
of our service to you. Please take full advantage of these valuable tools
and resources.
For information on current products or initiatives, please contact the
Community Affairs office at (415) 974-2978.
Have you browsed our Web site lately? A wealth of useful information
is just a keyboard and click away. For example, you can download copies
of articles from previous issues of Community Investments, print copies
of Community Investment Profiles from fourteen 12th District
states and communities, obtain information on upcoming events, and peruse
useful reference materials on the CRA and fair lending regulations. Our
Internet address is http://www.frbsf.org/community/index.html
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