A new nonprofit group hopes to help immigrants open eight businesses next year -- possibly in sewing, coffee manufacturing and fish farming -- in Wilkinsburg, Braddock or McKees Rocks.
"A lot of those folks come here as students or relatives of students," said Christina Gabriel, director of innovation economy at The Heinz Endowments. "They tend to be very entrepreneurial and passionate about educating themselves and their kids about how to be successful in the United States.
"This program would help connect these folks to the economy and help them build businesses and create jobs."
The endowments gave $95,000 to help launch the Christian Evangelistic Economic Development, or CEED, a Highland Park-based incubator of businesses founded by immigrants, mostly from Africa. Next month, it will consider a grant of $250,000 to provide micro-loans in the three communities.
In Africa, a vendor can just set up a stall on a street, and a truck driver can just hop into a truck. In America, however, these entrepreneurs need different kinds of licenses.
Ray Parker, president and CEO of CEED, said immigrants are interviewed to determine their skills, are taught about American and local culture, and helped to obtain the licenses or certificates they need to open their businesses.
"We hope to give them a new start in a new country," he said.
The program could help boost the population of three communities that have been losing people. Since the decline of the steel industry, for example, Braddock's population has dwindled from more than 20,000 to fewer than 3,000.
The idea, Parker said, is to put businesses on the first floor of buildings, so the owners can live above them "almost like the old mom-and-pops."
Rufus Idris, executive director of CEED, said about 7,000 Africans from 21 countries live in Allegheny County. He hopes the program will employ at least 30 of them.
The fish farming enterprise could start with the eggs of catfish and tilapia and develop them until they are market size.
Idris envisions a business in which coffee is roasted, blended and processed. A textile co-op could employ seamstresses making window treatments, clothes and bedding such as pillowcases.
The sewing center could help Kadiatou Conte-Forte, 55, a native of Guinea who lives in Highland Park. She founded the Balafon West African Dance Ensemble and designs costumes for her dancers.
She recently had to go to Washington to get 53 dance costumes. If the co-op were running, she said, "that's a big help for me."
The Heinz Endowments backs the program because it not only creates jobs but helps diversify the region.
"We really need to have an economy not just for Caucasians but for other groups in the region," Gabriel said. "It's an economic issue and moral issue. When you have people with different kinds of backgrounds, you tend to get better ideas by pulling those different perspectives together."
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