    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [January 30, 1997]
    [Pages 97-100]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Awards for Excellence in
    Microenterprise Development
    January 30, 1997

        Thank you. Welcome to the White House. I would like to begin with a
    word of thanks to, first, Secretary Rubin, who became Treasury Secretary
    and, before that, head of the National Economic Council, with a passion
    rare for someone in his previous line of work--[laughter]--rare, to
    bring the benefits of enterprise to people who had been too long denied
    them, and an absolute conviction, too rare all across our country, that
    just because people were poor and in distress did not mean they could
    not do better, did not mean that we could not spread the benefits of
    enterprise to the cities and to the isolated rural areas where they had
    been too long absent.
        I'd also like to thank the First Lady for beginning this obsession,
    almost, that we have with microenterprise with me. I guess--I asked her
    before I came up here, and we were laughing--you know, one of the great
    burdens of growing older is that you can't remember when something
    happened even if you remember exactly what happened. [Laughter] And I
    said, ``Now, when was it that I came home and told you, `I hope I live
    long enough to see Muhammad Yunus win a Nobel Prize'?''--[laughter]--
    because it was my first exposure, through our friends in Chicago who
    brought me in touch with him, to the whole idea that microenterprise
    might be exploded across a nation. And she said, ``I think it was '85,
    but it might have been '86.'' So to be literally accurate, more than 10
    years ago--[laughter]--we started the long road which we could not have
    predicted would bring us all to this day.
        These awards for excellence in microenterprise development simply
    recognize that our country has been and will be built on the enterprise
    of our people, on their ideas, their energies, their willingness to take
    risks, their willingness to pursue their dreams. That is the story of
    all the new businesses in this country. And with the right opportunity,
    those kinds of dreams can become real for countless numbers of people to
    support their families and strengthen their communities and build our
    country into the kind of nation we want in a new century.
        Indeed, it is now a commonplace observance that often the greatest
    contributions, economic contributions, in our communities come from the
    smallest businesses in the aggregate. They literally can transform
    communities, offering a path to success for Americans who would
    otherwise not have had it.
        If we can spread the opportunity for microenterprise, for making
    that first beginning across this country, we can offer a new path to
    success for Americans who today are left out of the economic mainstream.
    In rural America it may be a person who once worked on a family farm. In
    urban areas it may be a parent who can't juggle an office or a plant job
    with a family or who's been left out of the work force for childrearing
    or who is struggling to move from welfare to work. It might be older
    Americans who are retired from their previous jobs. It might be people
    with disabilities who aren't mobile but who have a skill, an idea, a
    capacity to contribute. It might be laid off workers looking for a
    second chance.
        There are huge numbers of people in our country, as all of you know,
    who are literally brimming with initiative and desire, who are willing
    to be responsible and work hard. Microenterprise helps to put such
    people on their feet and gives people with courage and genius a chance
    to reach for the stars. To do that, they must have opportunity. There
    are people often who need these opportunities who are completely unable
    to get proper business training or loans or even a hearing from a lender
    under the established systems. But when the opportunity is not there for
    them, make no mistake about it, their loss is also our loss. For every
    person whose potential goes unfulfilled, there is a problem or the
    absence of an opportunity that affects the entire Nation.
        And when they have an opportunity, we move closer together in our
    common goals for our society, for after all, all of us want every
    American to be able to be responsible and to work and to find
    fulfillment. We want to raise the incomes of people who can be fully
    participating in our society. We want to promote the growth of business.
    We want to ensure that everybody

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    has a stake in the success of our communities, because we know there are
    no unsuccessful communities where everybody has a stake in its success.
        As the First Lady has said with a lot of her compelling examples
    today, we have seen the value of microenterprise demonstrated in much
    poorer countries, bringing new dignity and better lives for women and
    children, especially. But we know it has also worked in America. One of
    the things that we worked to do in our home State was to create a
    community development bank and a good-faith fund microenterprise
    program.
        Since I became President, we have tried to go national with this
    micro idea in a very macro way. And again, I say it would not have been
    possible if it hadn't been for the support of Secretary Rubin and his
    considerable persuasive powers in convincing other people who had never
    thought about it that this was in fact a good idea. We want
    microenterprise to take root everywhere. We recognize, however, that our
    efforts alone are not enough. We have to have a partnership between the
    public and private sectors if we're going to have adequate support of
    microenterprise development all across the United States.
        I also want to emphasize that microenterprise must be part of a
    larger strategy to help every American make the most of his or her own
    life. There are many pieces to the strategy, and we must all play a role
    to have the whole strategy succeed. We also reformed the Community
    Reinvestment Act, to revive communities in distress and ensure that
    private sector capital flows to all--all--credit-worthy borrowers
    without prejudice. That is unleashing billions of dollars in private
    investment in those communities, and I am committed to maintaining that
    effort.
        In 1992, I called for a nationwide network of community development
    banks, while asking the Nation's banks and thrifts to make sound
    investments to expand opportunity, enterprise, and homeownership in
    distressed communities. Last year, Treasury's Community Development
    Financial Institutions Fund made its first round of awards to 32 CDFI's
    around the Nation. This is an initiative with enormous potential to help
    people who have been left out come in and be lifted up by their own
    endeavors.
        Before recognizing the awardees, I want to make two further
    announcements today in support of these common efforts. First, we are
    committed to increase the Community Development Financial Institutions
    Fund by a billion dollars over the next 5 years. That is almost triple
    its current funding. [Applause] Thank you. And all of you know that
    properly run, these funds can create more jobs with $100,000 than some
    traditional efforts can with a million. So I ask for your support and
    your continued demonstration that this is a good investment for all
    Americans.
        Second, I want to announce a bold new effort to help Americans in
    hard-hit communities go to work. We have finalized a new $10-million
    welfare-to-work partnership between Chase Manhattan Bank, the
    Rockefeller Foundation, and the Department of Housing and Urban
    Development. This three-way partnership will fund two private sector
    welfare-to-work projects designed to raise employment rates by as much
    as 20 to 30 percent in high poverty urban neighborhoods. More than 15
    sites will be funded in both projects; three of them, Brooklyn and
    Central Harlem in New York City and Sandtown-Winchester in Baltimore,
    have already been selected for one project. Los Angeles, Cleveland, San
    Antonio, Seattle, and Louisville are among the finalists for the other.
        I'd like to ask Peter Goldmark, the president of the Rockefeller
    Foundation; William Harrison, the vice president of the Chase Manhattan
    Corporation and Chase Bank; and Michael Stegman, Assistant Secretary at
    HUD, to stand so we can all thank you for your work in putting together
    this very amazing and very hopeful project. Gentlemen, would you please
    stand? [Applause]
        Microenterprise, by giving people the tools they need to help
    themselves, will reinforce efforts like this. And that's what our award
    recipients do every day. Today we recognize them for their successful
    efforts. They are the engineers and the pioneers of potential. We need
    more of them in America. I'd like to ask each of them to stand as I
    announce their endeavors and their award.
        First, the Women's Self-Employment Project is a leader in advocating
    for low income women in Chicago and assisting them to pursue self-
    employment to lift themselves from poverty and welfare dependency. It
    trains the women in entrepreneurship, marketing, and in getting loans.
    It has served more than 3,000 women in the past 10 years. Most of the
    clients have household incomes of $15,000. And listen to this, their
    business survival rate is 79 percent. Accepting

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    for the Women's Self-Employment Project the award for excellence in
    program delivery, poverty alleviation, is Connie Evans. Thank you,
    Connie.
        ACCION U.S. Network has made an impact in New York, Chicago, San
    Diego, Albuquerque, San Antonio, and El Paso. Its name--``action'' in
    Spanish--translates into opportunity for people it serves through
    specialized, streamlined loans. Most of its several thousand borrowers
    are Hispanic or low income entrepreneurs of homebased businesses. It
    also lends to others who lack access to credit. One of its best success
    stories is that of Safaraaz Saalim who went from being homeless to
    running a successful one-man salad restaurant in downtown San Diego.
    I'll go there next time I'm there. [Laughter] ACCION has shown itself to
    be a model of disciplined management.
        The Cascadia Revolving Fund operates in rural and urban communities
    of the Pacific Northwest--no, no, we're going to do them together; I
    know what I'm doing--[laughter]--providing intensive services to new and
    young businesses and helping them to stay in business. That's a big
    accomplishment because Cascadia specializes in high risk businesses. It
    is focused on helping low income people, women-owned firms, and
    businesses that locate in economically distressed communities.
        For their work, ACCION and Cascadia Revolving Fund are receiving
    awards for excellence in program delivery, access to credit, and the
    recipients are Bill Burrus for ACCION and Patricia Grossman for the
    Cascadia Revolving Fund. Let's give them a hand. [Applause]
        The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center established a
    microenterprise loan program several years ago to combat the problem of
    lack of capital to start up businesses in rural areas. Its solution: a
    highly effective model for statewide delivery of microenterprise
    services. It makes both individual and group loans and provides business
    training through local community-based partners. These partners identify
    potential borrowers and underwrite their loans. This is community action
    at its best, growing the economy at the grassroots. And we have another
    winner in this category as well. [Laughter]
        From its base in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Working Capital also
    provides small loans to groups of business owners who form peer groups.
    To further help the cause, Working Capital created the microenterprise
    toolkit, a step-by-step guide to starting a microenterprise program.
    This innovation will help spawn a whole new wave of entrepreneurs,
    something all of us can cheer.
        For their leaps in creativity, the awards for excellence in program
    innovation go to Billy Ray Hall of the North Carolina Rural Economic
    Development Center and Jeffrey Ashe of Working Capital. Let's give them
    a hand. [Applause]
        The Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund is a model of public-
    private partnership. It is an intermediary, raising money from public
    and private sources to build a statewide grassroots network of
    microfunds. In just a short time, the Partnership Fund has sown the
    seeds of a strong network of microenterprise, demonstrating that
    Federal, State, and local government can in fact work with community-
    based organizations to support the smallest businesses.
        The Self-Employment Learning Project of Washington, DC, is the
    preeminent effort to research and evaluate the development of
    microenterprise and the people it serves in the United States. It has
    been instrumental in setting down the foundation for the growth of
    microenterprise and promoting its potential as a road to economic
    opportunity. Before the Learning Project was established in 1991, there
    was little information on microenterprise, and well, here we are today
    celebrating them and more information. It has been a real engine in our
    progress, and I hope today that we are helping the Self-Employment
    Learning Project to get more information out about this around the
    country.
        For their fine work, they receive awards for excellence in public or
    private support of microenterprise development: Gene Severens of the
    Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund and Peggy Clark of the Self-
    Employment Learning Project.
        Again, let me thank all of you for being here. Again, I thank
    Secretary Rubin. I also want to thank Brian Atwood of AID and Phil
    Lader, the Small Business Administrator, for their intense support of
    our microenterprise efforts.
        And let me say, as all of you know, we have only scratched the
    surface. And I hope by our being together here today, you will go home
    reenergized. And I hope that because of the publicity this event
    generates, you will all get hundreds of calls asking you--[laughter]--
    how more communities and more neighborhoods can become involved in this
    great endeavor. And

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    I hope that we can depend upon Senator Kennedy and Congressman Davis to
    have yet another good project to become evangelical about. [Laughter]
        Thank you all very much, and good day. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:53 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to development economist Muhammad
    Yunus, managing director, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh.