Group Offers Support System For Businesses

Sun., June 20, 1999

Vickie Countryman

Minority businesses owners have been working in the Inland Northwest for decades. They work as florists, restaurant owners, graphic artists, engineers and in a variety of other professions. However, they have mostly been invisible to business associations, the public and the media.

Not anymore. More than 100 minority businesses are embracing a newly organized association called AHANA. It stands for African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American. The group offers a support system to minority businesses. It provides networking and marketing opportunities. It publishes a monthly newsletter and soon, the first-ever minority owned business directory. AHANA also provides business tip sheets and will sponsor low-cost workshops and seminars.

AHANA is a necessary vehicle to move Spokane past the talk of diversity and into the realization of it. AHANA’s work is necessary because the Inland Northwest has to prepare to be globally competitive and acknowledge that within the next decade, employees of color will make up almost half our national work force.

The Inland Northwest has long had a reputation as a place not friendly to diverse groups. Because of this, the area has lost conferences, and has had difficulties recruiting - and keeping — businesses and employees.

AHANA’s work should help change this reputation and slow the trend. It will help minority-owned businesses to start up and flourish. AHANA has formed an important reciprocal relationship with two business groups - the Spokane Area Economic Development Council and the CEO leadership group of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.

All have a similar goal - to create a supportive business environment that encourages diverse professionals, entrepreneurs and businesses to move and invest in Spokane. Who would have imagined this joint venture a few years back?

Who would have imagined that CEOs in our region would also come together in a public way to make a stand against hatred and racism? They did. On June 9, a full-page ad was placed by 45 business owners voicing opposition to the white supremacist march this July. The headline read, “The right to march does not make the march right.”

AHANA’s work, plus the CEO involvement in diversity, draws a new line in the sand. The message is: We won’t go back to apathy.

These efforts have set a tone for further opportunities and progress for all. The time is right to change the image of doing business in the Inland Northwest. These efforts are relatively new, and they need support. So get involved. It’s a good investment in our economic future.

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