[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 5 (Monday, February 3, 1997)]
[Pages 119-122]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Presenting the Microenterprise Awards

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 Mohammed Unis 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 com

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munities 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 workforce 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 laidoff 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 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.

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    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, 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. Gentleman, 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 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 the 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 deliv

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ery 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 businessowners 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 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.