The mission of the Adelante Center is to create wealth in communities with economic challenges through entrepreneurship, community development, and living wage job creation. The organization was formed to focus exclusively on developing programs and projects that would serve the Chicago area and far north suburbs.
Our Vision
Adelante has an ambitious plan for aggressively and successfully executing its two existing programs by the summer of 2020. We have aligned partners that have recently funded and launched both projects in two economically challenged communities for project management, development, and fundraising.
Our Goals
We believe that the most efficient way to increase wealth in Lake County is to support entrepreneurship. The wealth created by small businesses is important because it is a measure of a community’s economic resilience and dynamism. Wealth increases a community’s ability to attract new businesses, innovate and take risks. Without it, economic prospects diminish, job opportunities decrease and social ills proliferate. Black and Latino community members (who comprise nearly 30% of Lake County’s population) unequally experience such disinvestment.
For minority and small business owners, accessing investment capital or contracting opportunities is difficult to navigate as it is sometimes unfamiliar and tedious. Adelante’s revitalization strategy therefore aims to promote job retention and creation by connecting entrepreneurs and small business owners to tools, mentoring and job opportunities that grow and raise their business.
