Photo: (credit: Cassie Connelly) Kari B. Love, AWF’s Chief Executive Officer; Sandra Font, Director, ACE Women’s Business Center; and DiShonda Hughes, AWF’s Executive Vice President of Mission.
The Atlanta Women’s Foundation (AWF) announced a second year of funding for the Women’s Pathway to Success Program, which awarded a total of $500,000 to ten local nonprofit organizations to provide a critical combination of services needed to move women to economic self-sufficiency. These services include access to workforce training and development, microenterprise development, childcare assistance, financial literacy, and employment opportunities for women living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. One of this year’s ten recipients, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs Inc. (ACE), has been awarded $50,000. ACE was an awardee in the program last year as well.
“Returning women to the workforce increases family income and exponentially strengthens communities,” said AWF’s Chief Executive Office Kari B. Love, “Evidence demonstrates that increases in women’s income lead to improvements in children’s health, nutrition and education. AWF’s transformative program will reduce poverty and eliminate barriers to employment for women in metro Atlanta.”
Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs’ mission is to provide community economic development to underserved people and communities. ACE provides loans and business development resources to help its borrowers create and grow sustainable businesses which generate jobs. This grant will be used to continue ACE’s efforts to increase economic opportunities for disadvantaged women. ACE provides access to small business capital along with business development services to assist women in starting and growing successful businesses. They also have loan programs in place that allows ACE to provide reduced interest rates to women business owners, making the cost of capital more affordable for low-to-moderate income women.
“We are driven to help others succeed,” said Sandra Font, Director of ACE’s Women’s Business Center. “The funding will help ACE to continue offering capital, coaching and connections to women who desire to build and grow a business.”