EmPOWERing Cherokee’s Hispanic Community
WOODSTOCK, GA — The Cherokee Office of Economic Development is teaming up with Cherokee By Choice investor Georgia Power to embrace Cherokee County’s vibrant Hispanic community as part of the BIPOC strategies under its Cherokee By Choice 2.0 initiative.
The Cherokee Office of Economic Development (COED) celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month this year by debuting its Entrepreneurship Stories: Hispanic Heritage Month Series. COED sought out local Latino business owners and entrepreneurs to interview for article highlights, promoted on their social medias and website.
COED aims to instate this series as an annual celebration of Hispanic stories and contributions in the community, and to shine light on Latino-owned businesses citizens can support.
“In this world, anything is possible. Si se puede,” said Rudy Garza, owner of Garza Insurance Group (pictured left), in his Hispanic Heritage Month interview. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Hispanic or not, I believe wholeheartedly that’s what Cherokee County has. We support each other, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
To read this year’s highlights, visit cherokeega.org/news.
To further amplify Latino voices, COED launched the inaugural Latino Business Roundtable on Oct. 12 of this year (pictured below). COED invited eight Hispanic business owners to share their ideas, concerns and feedback as stakeholders in the community.
The Latino Business Roundtable serves to better connect COED to Latino business owners and the Hispanic community at large in order to understand their unique perspectives and specific needs.
Attendees shared ideas, experiences and knowledge to strengthen the collaboration and support among Cherokee’s Latino community.
“We want to help Latino-oriented businesses, and also find things we can do to help our community in general,” said Oscar Velez, co-owner of Three Brother’s Painting. “Anything we can do for the community that integrates our culture [is helpful], because we’re here and we’re underrepresented in many aspects.”
A major concern COED is working to alleviate is the language barrier for Spanish-speakers. Visitors to COED’s website now have the option to translate the webpage to Spanish – along with five other languages.
At the 2023 Cherokee Career Expo, jobseekers had the opportunity to request a real-time Spanish translator to help them navigate language barriers while networking with employers.
This is just the beginning of strides in inclusivity COED is bringing to Cherokee as part of the Cherokee By Choice 2.0 (CBC)’s BIPOC and minority-owned business support initiative – made possible by CBC investors, and Georgia Power.
CBC 2.0 is COED’s next-level five-year economic growth and resiliency initiative. Developed in partnership with private and public sector leaders, partners, and stakeholders in and around Cherokee, CBC 2.0 attacks three main goal areas: talent, business and product.
To read the full five-year plan or invest in Cherokee By Choice 2.0, click here.