What is The California Mosaic Small Business Center?
The California Mosaic Small Business Center is a project by the International Rescue Committee to provide California’s entrepreneurs easy access to business technical assistance, training, and support. Funded in part through a Grant with the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. The main components of The Center include:
- A multi-lingual (Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Swahili, Spanish, and French) website that provides services available to all Californian entrepreneurs, no matter where they are located
- Trained multi-lingual business coaches offering personalized small business technical assistance to small business owners on a range of topics
- A variety of in-language group and workshop-based training opportunities, both in-person at Center locations and remotely, accessible through the California Mosaic Small Business Center website, on topics such as business planning, marketing, business operations, financial management, import/export, and more
- Access to financial products through screening and referrals to community lenders for business loan(s), as well as referrals to IRC financial coaches and foundational credit-building loan products for small business owners who need to prioritize personal financial health and credit first
About the International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people affected by humanitarian crises—including the climate crisis—to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. Founded at Albert Einstein's call in 1933, the IRC is now at work in over 40 crisis-affected countries and communities throughout Europe and the Americas. We deliver a lasting impact by providing health care, helping children learn, and empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant.
About the California Office of the Small Business Advocate
The California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) supports economic growth and innovation and ensures that ALL California small businesses and innovative startups have the information and direct support they need to better navigate resources, programs and regulations. CalOSBA serves as the voice of small business, representing their views and interests across the state and advocating for access to capital, markets, and networks so that all California small businesses successfully start, manage, grow and become more resilient.
About SCALE
SCALE: Success, Capital Access and Leadership for Entrepreneurs was created by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) to help California’s small businesses across the state access more resources to start up, grow, and create jobs.
The IRC’s California Mosaic Small Business Center is proud to participate in the SCALE Program as a resource partner.
Through this initiative, we will provide entrepreneurs with access to free business technical assistance, including tailored business counseling, loan assistance, financial coaching, workshops, and more. We will also connect entrepreneurs with a larger network of partners who can provide all the resources they need to be ready to receive a loan.
The Mosaic Center is honored to participate in this program as a resource partner, working to ensure small business owners of various backgrounds are ready to access this funding. This work will include
- raising awareness of funding opportunities,
- providing one-on-one coaching to help business owners navigate the loan process,
- providing one-on-one coaching and training on financial, legal, and accounting topics
- preparing loan applications and
- determining what financing products are the best fit.
Funding for this $25.3 million Program comes from the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which was created by the U.S. Congress in 2010 and reauthorized through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Additionally, it will support the deployment of $1.1 billion in federal funding separately approved for capital support programs from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) and the California Pollution Control Financing Authority. Lenders across the state are expected to leverage the $1.1 billion in funding for existing capital support programs into $18 billion in new loans for small businesses.