Fifth Third Bank Donates $50,000 to ACCESS

Fifth Third Bank donated $50,000 to the ACCESS Growth Center in Dearborn on Tuesday to help local entrepreneurs start or grow new businesses.

The center's Immigrant Entrepreneur Development Program offers a variety of workshops for entrepreneurs, ranging from Arabic speaking business training and coaching, to marketing strategies, financial development and bookkeeping. 

Specifically, the donation will allow ACCESS to bring in a part-time business coach, help the organization operate a new microloan fund through the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, and allow them to formalize their immigrant entrepreneur curriculum by hiring a curriculum writer, said Michael Ansara, the program's coordinator.

"We’ve used pieces of various curriculum, but now it’s about customizing it for a very specific population so that it’s sensitive to the culture," he said. "For example, how was your business operated back home vs. here? We’ll have examples of that and we’re working with a curriculum writer to be able to do that."

Detroit resident Iesha Morgan is one of many local entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of the Growth Center's business services.

"After going through the program and seeing all the information that was out there, all the help that I was able to obtain in just the business plan has truly made a world of difference," said Morgan, who is opening a tax service business in Dearborn on Jan. 15. 

Fifth Third Bank has donated approximately $125,000 to ACCESS over the years for various projects through the bank's CRA Enterprise Investment Fund, said David Girodat, president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank, Eastern Michigan.

"This donation I think is particularly important because it’s really about educating the immigrant entrepreneurs," said Girodat. "Almost 16 percent of all small businesses opened over the last 10 years were by the immigrant population. It's our job to assist in educating them and providing business acumen and setting them up for success."