CIELO

CIELO catalyzes hope, resilience, and stability in under-resourced communities by helping enterprising individuals transform their dreams of owning a neighborhood business into reality.

CIELO has been helping low-income Orange County residents pursue financial stability since 2012, when CIELO first began as an incubated project of Oak View Renewal Partnership (OVRP) to serve the under-resourced Oak View community of Huntington Beach. While CIELO’s programming was being tested and refined in this neighborhood, an economic study on CIELO’s potential community impact revealed that CIELO had the potential to fill the gap of inequality for many of Orange County’s low-income and under-resourced entrepreneurs. After officially launching in 2016 and operating as a fiscally sponsored project of OVRP for three years, CIELO received independent 501(c)(3) status in March 2018. CIELO has become a comprehensive ecosystem for our immigrants and communities of color, helping to fill the gap in accessible, individualized entrepreneurial training and support.

CIELO now serves as a small business support system for all Orange County residents, with a focus on low-income and under-resourced individuals who lack the resources, knowledge, and support to change their economic trajectory. We aim to reduce opportunity inequality by providing our target population with the resources or connections they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Since launching in 2016, CIELO has achieved the following results:
Served over 4,000 clients and helped over 450 businesses launch or become launch ready.
90% of our clients were low-income, with 83% earning less than $40,000 annually.
80% of our clients were minorities, 72% were female, 15% were veterans, and 30% had no high school diploma or GED.

When 2020 began, no one imagined the challenges the country would face in health, the economy, and the renewed revelation of disparities for microbusinesses (small businesses with five employees or less) in under-resourced communities that drive local economies. According to the California Budget & Policy Center, the majority of jobs lost in Orange County because of the COVID-19 recession were in low-paying industries. This means that many of the people who have lost work were already struggling before the crisis and are unlikely to have a financial cushion to weather this downturn.

Contrary to its reputation as the land of beaches, tourism, and glitzy Reality TV families, many Orange County residents face a multitude of barriers to economic stability. Throughout the County, there are pockets of neighborhoods made up of mostly people of color with multiple families living in cramped apartments or small homes and a fair amount living under the poverty line. The childhood poverty rate is 15.2% of county population and 23% of Orange County neighborhoods had high levels of family financial instability. These residents struggle to meet their families’ basic needs living in Orange County, the sixth most expensive urban area in the country (Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index, Quarter 2, 2020) Orange County’s cost of living is 21% higher than the California average and home prices are 61% higher (($110,700 a year needed to afford an entry-level home), than the California average. Furthermore, rental prices are 30% higher than the California average, which is $1488.00

In addition, low-income workers often have difficulty being approved for housing, obtaining loans, or accessing financial assistance due to low credit scores and poor financial history. Generally, they do not have the social networks that would connect them to in-demand jobs or careers. Because of this, low-income people are fighting an uphill battle to meet their basic needs and pursue economic self-sufficiency.

The destitution in Orange County is growing dramatically, along with income inequality, homelessness, and overcrowded housing, according to a comprehensive survey by government agencies and charitable organizations. Due to the high cost of living in Orange County, almost 60,000 working families have been pushed into poverty.

The economic crisis amplified long-standing economic and health inequities, hitting LMI and BIPOC, as well as women, immigrants, and workers paid low wages much harder. Despite the tremendous impact this community has on local and national economies, small business owners of color have faced unique challenges when trying to start and grow a business due to discrimination in our banking system and society as a whole — problems that were greatly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. CIELO believes that without a concerted effort to truly invest in a diverse and equitable business ecosystem, entrepreneurs of color will continue to face systemic barriers and won’t survive the next crisis.

CIELO serves people throughout Orange County from our two locations in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa.

Last year was critical for CIELO’s future, as we continued to sharpen our focus and engagement with
Orange County’s neighborhood entrepreneurs, who are often in the shadows and forced into creating a
side business because the minimum wage jobs they typically have access to, aren’t enough to live in
Orange County. In our under-resourced immigrant neighborhoods, access to living wage jobs are often
out of reach because of limited education, language or job training attainment.

So, who is the neighborhood entrepreneur? Well first, they are extraordinary. They are resilient, tenacious,
hard-working, resourceful and innovative. They are the definition of the entrepreneurial spirit and they exist
everywhere in Orange County, but the existing small business ecosystem doesn’t see them. We do. That’s
why CIELO exists.

Here’s the typical story of neighborhood entrepreneurs...
• A modest 2 bedroom apartment in Orange County cost at minimum, about $2,000/mo.
• To cover the cost of rent a household needs to make at least $40/hr, or $80,000/yr.
• Minimum wage is $15.50, so to make rent, a household needs to have about three minimum wage jobs.
(And again, that’s just barely making it by every month)
• In the household is an extended family of six: 2 parents, 2 children, an elderly grandparent, and a sibling
to one of the parents .
• To support the family, the father and his sibling work full-time kitchen and warehouse jobs at minimum
wage; Together they make two-thirds of what they need to afford rent.
• Childcare is too expensive, so the mother stays home with their 2 yr old and also keeps an eye on her
aging mother.
• To make ends meet, the mother creates a side neighborhood business out of her home – a taco stand
on her lawn during the day, and a catering business on the weekends; When her husband and brother
return from work, they also help.

After spending many years partnering with our under-resourced immigrant communities, we learned that
these neighborhood entrepreneurs really drive the local economies, and they deserve to be seen, to be
heard, and to be supported.

I urge you, our CIELO Community, to continue showing up and supporting our neighborhood superheroes.
Deep gratitude to our funding partners and donors for investing in us, to our community partners for
delivering valuable services, and to our clients for believing in yourself. Yes you can.

Iosefa Alofaituli
CIELO, Co-Founder & Executive Director