Discussion and Reception — How Good Jobs Support Small Business Success: Lessons from the Shared Success Demonstration
Description
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program is delighted to invite you to a discussion and reception with key leaders from our Shared Success demonstration.
Job quality is vital not only for workers, but also for small businesses and communities. Yet too many jobs today miss the mark on one of the key characteristics of a good job: providing enough pay to live on. Only 56% of full-time workers in the United States make enough money to cover their families basic needs. This problem is particularly acute at small businesses. Nearly 60% of low-wage workers work at businesses with fewer than 100 employees, and 35% of low-wage workers work at micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Small businesses also struggle to address other characteristics of a good job, like providing adequate benefits, stable scheduling, and a positive work culture.
Recognizing this context, in 2022, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) launched the Shared Success project, funded by the Gates Foundation. The project supports 11 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) across the country to integrate job quality support into their small business services with the goal of improving job quality for small business employees and building business resilience. Three years later, EOP has seen how grantees have used innovative approaches to recruit, advise, and incentivize small businesses to improve job quality.
In this event, happening May 21, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET, online and at the Aspen Institute’s office in Washington DC, we will hear from leaders of CDFIs, their small business clients, philanthropic supporters, and other experts, and we’ll discuss the lessons learned from Shared Success, ranging from practical tips about strategies for engaging small businesses in discussions of job quality to the range of job quality improvements CDFI clients helped their businesses make. Join us for this important discussion on small business support strategies that help businesses and workers both thrive, achieving Shared Success. In addition, join us after the discussion for a rooftop reception featuring Shared Success CDFI grantees, panelists, and other supporters of job quality and small business success.
If you are unable to join us in person, you can also register to join the discussion virtually.
Agenda
3:00PM —— Welcome
- Maureen Conway, Vice President, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program
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Panel 1 —— Driving Innovation in Small Business Lending Examples of How Small Business and CDFIs are Working Together to Advance Job Quality
- Israel Flores, Business Services Director, Northern Initiatives
- Tristan Bredehoft, Co-Owner and Founder, Cafe Rica
- Laura Owens, Chief of Staff, VChief; Consultant, Four Bands Community Fund
- Eunice Straighthead, Co-Director, Oyate Studio
- Lauren Starks, Director, Good Companies/Good Jobs, Economic Opportunities Program (moderator)
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Panel 2 —— Building, Sustaining and Scaling Job Quality within CDFIs
- Viola Mai, Director of Development and Impact, ICA Fund
- Betsy Biemann, Chief Executive Officer, Coastal Enterprise Inc.
- Tim Ogden, Managing Director, New York University’s Financial Access Initiative
- Joyce Klein, Senior Director, Business Ownership Initiative, Economic Opportunities Program (moderator)
Speakers
Betsy Biemann
Chief Executive Officer
Coastal Enterprise Inc.
Betsy is the chief executive officer of Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI), which works to grow a just, vibrant and climate-resilient future for people and communities in Maine and rural regions nationally. Before joining CEI in 2016, Betsy led “Growing Maine’s Food Industry, Growing Maine,” a project of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard University, and consulted for companies, foundations and nonprofits. From 2005-2012 she was president of the Maine Technology Institute, investing in companies and initiatives seeking to grow high-potential sectors of Maine’s economy. Prior to her move to Maine, Betsy was an associate director at The Rockefeller Foundation, where she managed a national grant and impact investment portfolio aiming to increase employment in low-income communities across the US and was a Warren Weaver Fellow in the inaugural cohort of this Rockefeller program bringing early career professionals into the philanthropic field from across the globe. She started her career working in international development, principally in sub-Saharan Africa.
Betsy serves on the board of the New Growth Innovation Network. She has served as the vice chair and policy committee chair of the Opportunity Finance Network, on the boards of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center, as well as on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Inclusive Economies Working Group. She earned her B.A. at Harvard University and her master of public administration at Princeton University’s School of International & Public Affairs. Betsy is the mother of two adult children and lives in Brunswick, Maine with her husband and their dog.
Tristan Bredehoft
Co-Owner and Founder
Cafe Rica
Tristan Bredehoft is the co-owner and founder of Café Rica in Battle Creek, Michigan. Bredehoft and his brother, Jackson Bredehoft, began the venture in 2016 when they entered the world of online retail. Today, the Café Rice team has consistently worked towards creating a unique and handcrafted coffee experience, emphasizing quality and community engagement. Bredehoft also serves as a business development consultant for Breaking Bred Hospitality.
Israel Flores
Business Services Director
Northern Initiatives
Israel Flores is director of business services for Northern Initiatives (NI), working out of the Battle Creek office. Israel started at NI as a business development specialist in 2018 and was promoted to the director position in 2020. A certified professional coach, Israel specializes in working with entrepreneurs
to make their business dreams a reality.
His professional background in the business, nonprofit, and education sectors has given him a wealth of experience in business management, community engagement, and community organizing. Israel is also a fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and he now lives in Battle Creek with his wife, two children, and two dogs.
Tim Ogden
Managing Director
New York University’s Financial Access Initiative
Tim serves as managing director, coordinating Financial Access Initiative’s (FAI) research, communications, and operations. At FAI, he leads the Small Firm Diaries, a global project to better understand the financial needs and challenges of small employer firms in low-income neighborhoods.
His previous work experience encompasses the private and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining FAI he was the chief knowledge officer at Geneva Global, Inc., an international philanthropy advisory company, and founding editor of Gartner Press. He founded and currently leads Sona Partners, a thought leadership communications firm, where he has helped develop more than 20 books for major publishers. Tim is co-author of “Toyota Under Fire,” and author of “Experimental Conversations,” a collection of interviews with economists conducting field experiments on poverty alleviation interventions. He also serves as chairman of GiveWell, and is a senior fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program and Financial Security Program.
Laura Owens
Chief of Staff at VChief
Consultant for Four Bands Community Fund
Laura Owens is chief of staff at vChief and a consultant to Four Bands Community Fund for three years. As a part of Four Bands Community Fund’s Job Quality program, Owens worked with small business owners to design and implement strategies to improve job quality, such as creating employee handbooks, leave policies, and training programs for new hires. Owens has dedicated over 15 years to advancing equity and driving positive social impact across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors. Previously, Owens worked at the National “I Have A Dream” Foundation for almost ten years, wearing many hats including overseeing the Human Capital function, Board Development, Affiliate Relations, Fundraising and Special Projects such as the development of a National College Savings Account and a post-secondary success program for students from under-resourced communities. Prior to that, she worked at the New York City Department of Education, where she developed a performance management system for an office of 200, trained teachers and superintendents on a new online data and knowledge sharing system, and oversaw the charter school application review process. She earned a master’s in public administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University and a bachelor of arts from Loyola University Maryland.
Eunice Straight Head
Co-Director
Oyate Studio
Eunice Straight Head is the co-director of Oyate Studio and is from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Oyate Studio is an art studio based on the Cheyenne River Reservation, home to the Thitunwan (People of the Plains) of the Oceti Sakowin. Oyate Studio specializes in creating artisanal products and provides a fully resourced coworkspace to teach and learn new art forms with aspiring Native artisans. Straight Head is also a photographer who creates portraiture, documentation, and landscape photography.
Viola Mai
Director of development and impact
ICA Fund
Viola Mai is a finance professional dedicated to democratizing financial systems with 10 years of experience across her work with nonprofits, for-profits, and volunteer collectives. She began working in the CDFI industry in 2018, partnering with individuals, corporations, and government agencies to aggregate and move capital in support of community-focused economic development.
Mai currently serves as director of development and impact at ICA Fund, where she oversees the organization’s fundraising strategy and impact measurement program. Prior to her role at ICA, Mai led national capital raising efforts and administered investment note programs at Self-Help Federal Credit Union.
Mai also volunteers with Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute, a nonprofit that builds community power by developing local civic leadership, and Cut Fruit Collective, a grassroots organization that cultivates resilient communities through visual arts and intergenerational storytelling.
Moderators
Maureen Conway
Vice President, The Aspen Institute;
Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program
Maureen Conway serves as vice president at the Aspen Institute and as executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). EOP works to expand individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity. View Maureen’s full bio.
Joyce Klein
Senior Director
Business Ownership Initiative
Economic Opportunities Program
Joyce Klein is the senior director of the Business Ownership Initiative, which works to expand the role of business ownership in generating economic opportunity. Ms. Klein assumed the leadership of BOI (formerly FIELD) in 2012, after working as a senior consultant since the program’s inception in 1998. She is recognized as a leading expert on microlending in the US, speaking at national and regional industry conferences and being quoted in a variety of news media, including The New York Times and NPR’s “Marketplace.” Joyce has more than 20 years of experience studying and supporting microenterprise and entrepreneurial development programs in the US, and she has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including funder brief and strategy guides, evaluation and research reports, case studies, and policy briefs. She has also designed and managed grant programs aimed at supporting innovation in the practice of microenterprise development in the US.
Under Ms. Klein’s leadership, BOI launched the Microfinance Impact Collaborative and helped to create the Entrepreneur Backed Assets Fund and the Responsible Business Lending Coalition. A central focus of BOI’s work includes examining the potential role of business ownership and the microenterprise field in addressing the challenges of racial inequity and the racial wealth gap.
Ms. Klein also has worked as a consultant in the microenterprise field, providing assistance to clients including the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the US Department of the Treasury and CFED (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development). Prior to her work with BOI, Ms. Klein led CFED’s work in microenterprise development. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Boston College.
Lauren Starks
Director
Good Companies/Good Jobs
Economic Opportunities Program
Lauren Starks is the director of Good Companies/Good Jobs, an initiative of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. The Good Companies/Good Jobs Initiative focuses on building the incentives for companies to pursue a shared success model, in which workers thrive while contributing to the success of a healthy business, and on advancing actionable strategies needed to ensure more jobs are good jobs.
Lauren comes to the Institute from the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, where she served as the first lead for the Good Jobs Challenge program, one of six Investing in America’s Communities programs created under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Under her guidance, the program reached thousands of stakeholders, received over 500 applications, and executed technical assistance resulting in $500 million invested across the US to strengthen and scale locally driven workforce systems and partnerships.
Lauren has previously served in senior policy roles focusing on equity and economic mobility. In particular, as chief of staff to the general counsel at the US Department of Education (ED), she was responsible for complex interagency initiatives including the implementation of a career readiness program impacting over 250,000 individuals annually. As senior policy advisor at the White House Domestic Policy Council, Lauren designed strategies targeting postsecondary affordability and the removal of barriers to education and employment. As senior policy advisor within ED’s Office of the Under Secretary, she helped launch public-private partnerships focused on advancing opportunity for low-income individuals.
Lauren has received awards and recognition from the American Association of University Women, the US Department of Education, the US Department of Defense, Columbia University, and Yale University.
A native of Atlanta, Lauren earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale. She holds a law degree from Columbia, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Lauren and her husband, Geoffrey, live in Washington DC and have two children.
Learn More
About Shared Success
Good jobs and strong businesses are vital to the well-being of communities across the country. Yet millions of workers struggle with poor-quality jobs, and small business owners often struggle to find and retain the employees they need. Shared Success, a project of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), shows how building better jobs can uplift both sides at the same time. Supported by a $12 million investment from the Gates Foundation, EOP partnered with 11 community lenders to integrate job quality programming into their small business support services, supporting the needs of employees while helping small businesses succeed.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program hosts a variety of discussions to advance strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy. To learn about upcoming events and webinars, join our mailing list and follow us on social media.