Message to Our Community: Standing in Solidarity

Working Solutions stands in solidarity with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and all those fighting for racial justice and equity.

Our mission is to provide affordable and safe capital and consulting to support the dreams of those who have been marginalized due to race or gender. We recognize the multi-faceted nature of such dynamics and so our approach is multi-phased:

1) We stand in support of our team.

We have intentionally hired individuals who represent the communities we serve, and so our first priority is to ensure the physical and mental health of our team. We are also committed to providing space, time, and resources to our colleagues so that they can remain strong through trying times especially and because of racial traumas. As an example, within the days following the tragic events in Atlanta, we hosted several safe listening spaces for our AAPI-identifying staff and additionally for all of our staff.

2) We are a learning organization and committed to staying informed.

We are committed to education and resource-sharing to build community and sustainability. The following is a resource we highly respect: Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) and the group Hollaback! have partnered to offer free resources and workshops designed to help grow individual skills to stand against any form of discrimination. Learn more at www.ihollaback.org/bystanderintervention.

3) We support Asian American entrepreneurs by directing purchases to Asian-owned small businesses.

We will continue to amplify local small businesses from within our portfolio who could use your support to help strengthen the threads of diversity that run through our local Bay Area communities. We encourage you to support AAPI-owned businesses, and one way to do so is to shop through our Working Solutions AAPI-owned business directory.

4) We will implement our five-year strategic goals, but with greater specificity for AAPI communities.

These goals include deploying 60% of our capital to communities of color each year. While we have made public commitments to deploy 20% of our capital specifically to Black-owned businesses and 20% to Latinx communities, we have yet to confirm a specific commitment of deployment to Asian American-identifying enterprises. We will establish this goal by June 30, 2021.

As a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Working Solutions remains deeply committed to a more inclusive and just economy. Our work is part of a national movement to democratize finance, and we are committed to closing racial and gender wealth gaps through entrepreneurship. Now more than ever, we must lift up entrepreneurs of color, particularly Asian entrepreneurs, and support the communities that we serve.