Animas Foundation Presents Program at the Vickery Meadow Learning Center

DALLAS - Oct. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- Students at VMLC’s Vickery Meadow campus attended a briefing on how to start their own business in two classroom sessions during the past week from Animas Foundation Executive Director, Dale Turner.  These students hailed from countries all over the globe, including the Far East, Middle East, Africa and South America.  With dreams of starting their own business, they came to learn how to obtain funding and receive an education in business start-ups.

Turner presented the Foundation’s mission, called “Pathways to Economic Freedom” which provides interest-free micro-funding and mentoring of entrepreneurial, small business ventures among those who typically lack access to traditional sources of capital.

Amir Morani CPA, founder of the Animas Foundation said, “It is clearly apparent that the VMLC students are hard-working and dedicated to changing the future for themselves and their families. They were very serious about an opportunity to receive financing and education to launch such ventures as a tailor shop, a landscaping business, a house painting enterprise and even a coffee shop.”

“The mission of VMLC is to help immigrant and refugee families improve their English literacy and life skills. We accomplish this by providing classes taught by trained volunteers and community partners like the Animas Foundation,” said Beth Wise, Student Outcomes Manager. “It is exciting to offer this new opportunity at VMLC. Our students represent 35 different countries; although they all have a common goal of seeking a better future for their families,” she added.

The Animas Foundation’s Pathways to Economic Freedom, launched earlier this summer, will provide interest-free micro-funding through Kiva Zip, a crowd-funding platform that helps entrepreneurial start-ups or business expansions based on a person’s strength of character, not on their balance sheet, credit rating or lack of collateral. The Foundation then provides an eleven-hour business ownership class using a program called “Money Smart for Small Business,” which was prepared jointly by the FDIC and the U.S. Small Business Administration.  As each business venture is endorsed, the Foundation pairs the entrepreneur with a business coach or mentor - a seasoned, successful business person - to assist the entrepreneur in getting their business successfully launched and advanced to a point of solvency.

The Animas Foundation has been approved as Trustees of Kiva Zip for the DFW Metroplex and North Texas markets.  Borrowers on Kiva Zip endorsed by selected Trustees may receive interest-free loans for entrepreneurial start-ups and expansions, with preference for business enterprises that provide for social good.

Dale Turner, who has been with the Foundation for six months and recently selected by the Board of Directors to serve as Executive Director, represented the Animas Foundation with a thirty minute presentation followed by a robust question and answer session.

“I was blown away with the interest some of these students had in starting their own business,” Turner said.   “Some of them have spent a lot of time thinking about it in great detail.  Most of these students have come to the U.S. in search of the American Dream and I hope we can help fund some of them,” he added.

Animas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with a social mission to improve the economic lives of low-income families in North Texas.  For more information about the Foundation and its mission, or if you wish to apply for the Animas Foundation business mentoring program, please visit www.animasfoundation.org.  For additional information about Kiva Zip, visit zip.kiva.org.

VMLC, founded as Vickery Meadow Learning Center, improves English literacy levels among non-English speaking adults and their young children by providing programs in communication and life skills. VMLC’s free, award-winning education programs help students improve their lives and find a pathway out of poverty. The organization provides free English literacy and early childhood education programs to 1,200 adults and 330 young children annually. For more information, visit www.VMLC.org.