Civic Entrepreneur
Know, Act, Lead
“Loans to boost Valley businesses, jobs”
Aug 29th
Loans to boost Valley businesses, jobs – A partnership between the Fresno Regional Foundation and Wells Fargo Bank is expected to generate millions of dollars in small-business microloans over the next decade and create hundreds of jobs in the Valley. – Fresno Bee
CE: The Great Recession has resulted in banks, credit unions and other financial institutions being less likely to provide loans, credit and other forms of financing to individuals and small businesses. In light of a market where financing has frozen, the micro-finance/loan/credit movement is attracting attention and momentum.
“Start-Ups on a Shoestring”
Aug 27th
Start-Ups on a Shoestring – We decided to see if you could launch a venture for less than people think. A lot less. We set out to find bootstrapping business owners who started companies in recent years—without shelling out more than a couple of hundred dollars. The ground rules: The entrepreneurs had to be either paying themselves a salary or reinvesting substantial profits in the business, as well as planning to continue down the entrepreneurial path for some time to come. We also nixed people who opened consulting firms in fields where they had already built careers. While that’s certainly entrepreneurial, we wanted people who were truly starting from scratch. – Wall Street Journal
CE: I was inspired by this article. In the midst of the Great Recession, people find a way to persevere and prosper.
Weekly Addresses
Aug 14th
This week, President Obama discusses the 75th anniversary of Social Security. The Republicans’ weekly address is not available yet.
“More than one-third of California youths 16 to 19 were jobless in June”
Aug 7th
More than one-third of California youths 16 to 19 were jobless in June – The nation’s ongoing unemployment crisis is proving particularly harsh on California teenagers. The jobless rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was a staggering 34.5 percent in June, “the highest rates we’ve seen in decades,” said Amar Mann, an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ San Francisco office. The soaring teen jobless rate – up nearly six percentage points from a year ago – is an offshoot of the state’s persistent double-digit unemployment, Mann and others said. As the problem lingers, more adults are seeking the service-sector jobs once considered the almost exclusive province of teens. – Sacramento Bee
CE: The Great Recession is disproportionately affecting youth. Competition is fierce. There are three ways youth can better compete.
Weekly Addresses
Aug 7th
The President of the United States and a designee of the loyal opposition deliver a Weekly Address to the nation. The tradition of a weekly address started with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his radio “fireside chats.” Since then, Presidents and the loyal opposition have used the weekly address to highlight accomplishments, challenges and the road ahead. Each week, we’ll post President Obama’s and the Republican Party’s addresses and share our thoughts.
“Timothy Stearns: Entrepreneurship vital to recovery”
Jul 31st
Timothy Stearns: Entrepreneurship vital to recovery – The executive director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fresno State writes that as any entrepreneur knows, when the market is not responding to your product, you change your product. And with unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley once again returning to unacceptable levels, we must change our product. Stearns op-ed in Fresno Bee
CE: Mr. Stearns concisely argues that the Great Recession should influence an individual and community’s approach to the challenges of the times. By dispelling five myths about entrepreneurs, he shows that the obstacles to entrepreneurship are imagined, such as most small businesses fail in two years: not true.
Mr. Stearns states: “No student in our community should graduate from high school without a course in entrepreneurship.”
That is a fascinating public policy idea, but how can we turn this idea into reality in my community?
“Training center expands as jobless numbers grow”
Jul 25th
Training center expands as jobless numbers grow – Esteban Castro is training to become a welder at the agency’s Anthony Soto Employment Training [ASET] Center in Stockton, a place originally designed to provide vocational education to unemployed, seasonal farm workers. The center, 2895 N. Teepee Drive, also offers job-placement assistance for those who complete the program. Stockton Record article
CE: The Great Recession has hit families hard across the United States, including California’s Central Valley. The article mentions the California Human Development, a non-profit 501(c)(3), which operates the Center, along with 2 others in Santa Rosa and Olivehurst.
I encourage you to check out California Human Development to learn more about their work and why they “exist to create paths and opportunities for those seeking greater self-sufficiency, independence and dignity through education, training, housing and other services.” You can even “Like” them on Facebook. 
Welcome!
Jul 25th
Welcome! My name is Josh Franco and founder of Civic Entrepreneur.
My inspiration for Civic Entrepreneur was planted as I grew up in Bellflower, emerged while I attended Cerritos College and UC Merced, bloomed as I participated in Great Valley Center’s Institute for the Development of Emerging Area Leaders and continues to grow each day and with each experience.
I am particularly thankful to Douglas Henton and John Melville for writing Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs are Building Prosperous Communities (Jossey Bass, 1997) and Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America’s Communities (Jossey Bass, 2004).
Their work led me to understand that civic entrepreneurs are “a new generation of leaders who forge new, powerfully productive linkages at the intersection of business, government, education, and community.”
My hope for Civic Entrepreneur is to share news, offer insights and bring civic entrepreneurs from around the world together.