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  11:28 a.m. February 26, 2014
Knoxville Area Urban League gets boost with CDFI certification


KNOXVILLE -- The Knoxville Area Urban League, with the City of Knoxville, announced its new community development financial institution (CDFI) certification at its annual membership meeting at the Holiday Inn at World’s Fair Park.

“The Urban League has been quite tenacious as we worked with the U.S. Treasury to gain this certification,” said Phyllis Nichols, Knoxville Area Urban League president and CEO. “We’re working to achieve sustainable efforts for economic development. One tenet of our mission is community development and becoming a certified CDFI will allow the Urban League to provide capital to a target market not served by traditional institutions.

“We will be able to strengthen our entrepreneurship training through partnerships and provide technical support to startups and expanding small and minority businesses.”

As a CDFI, the Knoxville Area Urban League will provide critically needed capital, credit and other financial products, along with technical assistance, to residents and businesses, service providers and developers who are working to meet community needs.

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero applauded the Urban League’s CDFI certification.

"This opens up new resources," Rogero said. "This creates new opportunities for small business development and enhances the capacity of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center and other initiatives to nurture entrepreneurs in our city."

The certification means strategic lending that started through the Urban League’s administration of the city's Empowerment Zone small business loan program can continue and expand to new beneficiaries, according to the mayor.

"I'm really excited," Rogero said. "The bottom line is jobs will be created, and this will be a great resource to entrepreneurs in the Empowerment Zone and throughout the city and Knox County."

Published February 26, 2014

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