- Announcement was made at Peka Restaurant in Brighton
By Kwot “Kay” Anwey
In a rare public conversation, beneficiaries of government-allocated funds given to Amplify Latinx—a Massachusetts non-profit and non-partisan organization that coaches Latinx small business owners—spoke with US Rep. Ayanna Pressley about how the $400,000 in funds shifted the course of their lives.
The roundtable took place on Friday, Dec. 8 in Brighton at Peka Restaurant, in Brighton. Peka is one of the roughly 300 businesses Amplify Latinx works directly with.
“What I learned from Latinx I still put into practice,” said the owner of Bright Beginners Family Daycare, Dora Aguilar, who has owned her business for nearly three decades.
“I can say that I can see my daycare prospering and can see different ways I can be able to grow. I feel so proud to be here, added Aguilar.
The passage of the 2023 Fiscal Year Government funding package gave nearly $14 million in funding to 15 community projects within the Massachusetts 7th District.
Among these projects was $400,000 for the Amplify Latinx ALX Small Business Program.
“The Massachusetts 7th is the most unequal district in our delegation [and] one of the most unequal in the country, and that is the result of decades of divestment, of under-resourcing and of policy-violence,” Pressley said.
“The harm that has been caused, the neglect that has been caused was very precise. It was very targeted. In the work of harnessing our collective brilliance, in the work of meeting people’s dreams and aspirations, in the work of building generational change, improving outcomes and building wealth, I am fighting for the Latinx community!”
Amplify Latinx, which was founded in 2018, aims through the Latinx’s Business Advancement program to give Latinx small business owners coaching to “increase sales, improve operations, implement digital processes, maintain healthy finances, and gain access to capital and new customers,” according to its website.
“These businesses don’t necessarily have access to opportunities, to capital or to certain resources that are crucial to the sustainability or growth of any business,” said President and Co-Founder of Amplify, Eneida Roman.
The event also provided an opportunity for this segment of the population to engage and have direct contact with an important policy-makers – a rare happening in the Latino community.
According to a poll conducted by Amplify Latinx and the MassINC Polling Group in December of 2022 via phone calls to about 1,200 Latinx Massachusetts residents, roughly 17 percent of those surveyed had contacted an elected official within the past year, showcasing the lack of civic engagement in the community.
The diverse crowd of over 50 was all turned towards the front of the brightly-decorated venue, hearing anecdotes from Amplify Latinx, beneficiaries, Amplify executives and Congresswoman Pressley.
“I think it’s important that organizations like this exist,” said Co-Owner of Solar Flair Optics, Evelyn Everton.
“When you own a business, you don’t have any schedule, you have to accommodate [to] your family needs and you have to juggle a lot, so it can be isolating. Having a coach guiding us through that process and keeping us uplifted [was] very important, so thank you (Amplify Latinx) so much for all the work you do.”
