Social Entrepreneurship Los Angeles California

Microcredit (Micro Loans)  is a financial innovation that is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank. The Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for helping 7 million people in poverty receive loans; since the founidng of the bank about US $6.0 billion has been loaned and the repayment rate is 99%.

Mosammat Taslima Begum (left), representing Grameen Bank, and Muhammad Yunus pose with their Nobel Peace Prize Medals and Diplomas.

What can microcredit do for the Recovery community?  How can it help?

Our idea is this:  We provide small loans to men and women who have accummulated a couple of years of sobriety; who are trying to start or grow a business; who would not be able to qualify for a conventional or SBA loan; who are willing to particpate in our entrepreneurship classes and programs.

What do we expect in return?  We expect our borrowers to pay back the loans with interest and participate in our entrepreneurship classes and program.

What do we hope?  We hope that our microcredit program will help recoverying individuals create or expand their businesses, create jobs for people in recovery and reduce the damage lost productivity in the recovery community does to our economy.

If you want to help us launch our microcredit program, please contact the 12 Angels!  Thank you…

Are you or have you ever been in a 12 step program to help you overcome your alcoholism or addiction?  Would you be willing to help other recovering alcoholics and addicts overcome their alcoholism and addictions — so they can reintegrate into the working world as productive members of society — by spending just 3-5 minutes of your time?  If you answered “yes” to those questions, then now is your opportunity to make a difference by participating in a completely anonymous survey that will help on a statistical level to foster a revolutionary online application for the benefit of the recovery community.

12 Angels is a nonprofit organization that fosters social entrepreneurship in the recovery community. The organization’s goal is to create and implement programs that will counteract the economic damage caused by alcoholism and addiction.

Thank you for your willingness to participate anonymously in this development process.  Please complete either one or both of the two surveys presented below based on your background and experience.

By taking these surveys, you are being of service to our community, and we are grateful!

SPONSORS

SPONSEES

“

The 12 Angels would like to thank the Broccoli Foundation for support of our career mentorship program. As the 100th birthday celebration of Albert “Cubby” Broccoli approaches. We send our gratitude out to Family of Albert Broccoli. We are very honored to be supported by the Broccoli Foundation!

I was reading about Albert Broccoli on Wikipedia and noticed something very relevant to this Blog: The Wikipedia author writes about how Albert Broccoli became a mentor to Michael G. Wilson; Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are Executive Producer’s of the James Bond Film Franchise. The Broccoli family is a wonderful example of mentorship and are HUGE supporters of education. We would like to thank Tony, Tina, Barbara and Michael and Jane Wilson along with the other members of the family.

The Broccoli Foundation has helped support education programs at USC, Johns Hopkins University and many other eductaional instittutions and programs. In 2001, the Foundation established the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Professorship in Oncology to advance discovery in breast cancer and vaccine therapies at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Dana and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli Foundation funded a faculty position dedicated to teaching the business and practice of film producing.

For more information on the Foundation’s work please see:

Brocolli Donation

News about Brocolli Donation

The 12 Angels organization recently started a career and job mentorship program. As a compliment to the services people receive in the 12 Step community, the 12 Angels are looking for mentors to model successful career development. Our program does not ask our mentors to find people jobs but rather be guides to career progress.

If you would like to be a mentor, please contact us at 877-858-1212. We need you!

We would like to thank José Luis Nazar for allowing 12 Angels to meet
at Houdini Park, one of the most storied locations in Los Angeles.

José Luis Nazar, the owner of Houdini Park, is the creator of Inglés
sin Barreras, the most successful English course for Hispanics in the
United States. He is restoring Houdini Park to the incredible
property it once was — a glorious four acres replete with natural
springs, cascades, Koi ponds, terraced gardens, and centenary trees.

Harry Houdini reputedly lived on the Laurel Canyon property in the
early 1920s. This world-famous magician had come to Los Angeles to
further his fortune in the Hollywood film industry. After Houdini
died in 1926, his wife, Bess, lived out her days in the estate’s
guest house, using the main house to conduct seances with her dead
husband.

We hope Houdini, the great escape artist, will aid us in our mission to help recovering addicts escape their previous life. We’ll take all the help we can get, even from the “great beyond,” to stop the damage addiction is doing to our society. Without support from people such as José Luis Nazar, our mission would be impossible.

Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased rapidly. As of January 2009, we have more than 11 million people unemployed. Everything equal would an employer hire a recovering addict? If you were an addict just leaving drug treatment center would you disclose this to a potential employer? I didn’t. I said I was returning from an extended trip to Europe in my first interview after rehab. I got the job.

Here is an interesting statistic from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA); in 2006, 23.6 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem. Out of the 23.6 million people needing treatment only 2.5 million received treatment.

Doing a little math - 23 million people need treatment and 11 million are unemployed; could it be that 12 million people are using on the job? Watch out employers! Looking back, I feel tremendous regret for the companies that gave me a job. I was a walking time bomb. My employers were blindsided by my addiction; I missed a lot of work, took extended lunch hours, I stole from my employers, I performed very poorly. Yet I was rarely fired. I am very smart and resourceful. I was able to con most employers or do just enough to get by.

Contrast my performance as a using addict with “me” sober and in recovery; I have started 5 businesses, sold 3, 2 privately, 1 publicly, 2 I still have ownership in; 4 of the 5 are still in business. I have employed hundreds of people, pay my taxes, give to charity and help other addicts through the 12 Angels and my personal 12 Step work. Is my transformation unique? I don’t think so. I am a small potato compared to many of my clean and sober friends. I know recovering addicts who run very large companies, employ thousands of people, make millions of dollars annually and contribute huge amounts of money to our economy and to charity.

One of the keys to our economic recovery is getting people clean and sober. Is that enough? We need to take it one step further and provide a bridge back to productivity. This is the focus of the 12 Angels. Here are some solutions to increasing productivity:

1. More agency owned businesses - these businesses can operate inside of long term government funded treatment centers. Some organizations like Delancey Street and the Salvation Army have been doing this for decades. One of our goals with the 12 Angels is to help other treatment centers that do not operate businesses start profitable and with sustainable companies. If you are reading this and are a cashed out entrepreneur, foundation or philanthropist - we need your help!

2. More micro-lending and micro-credit available to recovering addict entrepreneurs. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their success in creating economic opportunity to the poor. Why can’t we apply micro-lending and micro-credit to recovering addict entrepreneurs?

3. Why can’t we use models such as the ones developed by Pacific Community Ventures? Pacific Community Ventures uses tools of private equity to stimulate job creation, productivity and wealth in economically disadvantaged communities.

Practicing addicts and alcoholics cost our nation over $340 billion annually. Addiction is the largest health care problem in the nation. Using the 3 models described above coupled with the specific knowledge and experience of the 12 Angels’ organization is a winning combination.

We have an incredible opportunity to help everyone in our nation by reducing the damage addiction costs our society. Addiction is treatable. Economic recovery is possible. The return on investment is gigantic. Act now, help the 12 Angels implement our social entrepreneurship programs in the recovery community.

You can contribute via PayPal by using the button in the right most sidebar or donate your time and expertise by contacting us at 877-858-1212 or via email.

Applied Management Research

5 graduate students from UCLA’s Anderson School of Business will be helping the 12 Angels organization with an online mentorship project. We are very excited to be starting this 6 month project today. Mentorship is a vital component of career development and success. Technology allows us to use our resources more efficiently and have a greater reach.

UCLA’s Applied Management Research (AMR) Program’s Management Field Study brings together student teams with executives from organizations around the world. Each team completes an in-depth strategic study in partnership with an organization’s management.

The 12 Angels organization use successful models developed by the greatest social entrepreneurs of our time and apply them to solve the $340 billion of economic damage ( 577 KB .pdf file) done to the United States each year by addiction.

If you would like to learn more about our online mentorship program please send an e-mail to alex@12angels.org.

First - Let’s thank our donors and sponsors!

John and Regina Scully, Dr. Teas, Monarchy Clothing, the filmmakers from Lost in Woonsocket, Paul Mitchell, DJ Michaelis, SunStyle, the beautiful Ford Models from Ford Modeling Agency, metal artist Jason Mernick, the amazing cusine of Chris and Brett Sulzer, rock memorabilia from Slash and Sean McNabb, the comedy of Ashley Hamilton, the photography of Gene Kirkland, the beautiful candles of Timothy Jay in West Hollywood and Wire Image.

We had a full house, drank some amazing teas, raised some money, had a great time, laughed with Ashley Hamilton, Eric Kim provided us with some amazing clothes from Monarchy and we danced with DJ Michaelis.

The first annual Halo Fashion Show was a huge success. We are grateful to everyone that came to help create jobs and opportunities within the recovery community. Thank you!

On Thursday November 20 at 7:00 PM in the evening, the 12 Angels is hosting a benefit fundraiser. The event will be held at Dr. Tea’s Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium, which is located at 8612 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA, 90069.  RSVP to phone number (877) 858-1212 extension 1 or rsvp@12angels.org.

The focus of the fundraiser is to support three exciting projects from the 12 Angels: the microfinancing of sober entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurship education class, and the online social networking program.

The night will be a celebration of recovery with complimentary food and drink, including hot and iced teas, frosted teas, healthy sandwiches and salads, and an array of decadent deserts!

We will be having a fashion show by MONARCHY and music and dancing by DJ MICHAELIS…This will be MONARCHY’s only west coast fashion show this season.  DJ MICHAELIS is an internationally recognized DJ with a huge following. We have a silent auction with a number of very special items donated by celebrities in the community…

For individuals who would like something a little more low key, the event will include an exclusive screening of a new independent film about the disease of alcoholism, Lost In Woonsocket. Recently released across the country, the film was created by John Chester, the star of A&E’s cable show Random 1. The filmmakers and the stars will be present to talk about the film and answer questions after the screening.

On the 12 Angels website (www.12angels.org), we have quoted the NIDA’s statistics concerning the economic damage caused by Alcoholism and Addiction every year in the United States. The present figure of $340 billion dollars is twice the damage caused by cancer every year and half the cost of the current one-time economic bailout plan. So how can we help and what can we do?

Since alcoholics and addicts in early recovery often struggle to find work and are not the easiest people to hire or employ considering their checkered backgrounds, how can we aid them in the process of becoming productive members of society? In the 12 Step community, our common mantra is to be self-supporting through our own contributions. However, if a sober worker cannot find employment, how is he or she supposed to be self-supporting?

The central solution of the 12 Angels to this challenge is creating more jobs and opportunities for the newly sober by helping entrepreneurs in long-term recovery start of expand their businesses. In exchange for financial and technical support, we ask the entrepreneurs in long term recovery to hire the newly sober and provide recovery friendly work environments. By fostering awareness on both ends of the spectrum, the advantages to both employer and employee readily become apparent.

As a nonprofit entity, the 12 Angels organization and philosophy is modeled after the Grameen Bank of Muhammad Yunus, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The Grameen Bank is a microfinance and community development organization in Bangladesh that makes microcredit (or “grammeencredit”) loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The word “Grameen” derives from the word “gram” which means “village” or, more precisely, “of the village”. The bank’s philosophy is based on the concept that the poor have skills that are under-utilized and under-valued. We believe the same is true of the recovery community. For more information on the Grameen Bank - please see:

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/nobel_prize/vid_clinton.php

Beyond raising tax-deductible funds for the 12 Angels microfinance program, the benefit will raise money to finance our 12-week intensive entrepreneurship education program. Almost half the struggle of starting a business is connecting the bureaucratic dots successfully. Similar to NFTE and SCORE, the program walks entrepreneurs through the process while trying to match them with mentors and business counselors who provide the necessary experience and expertise.

Finally, the last and perhaps most revolutionary initiative we are looking to support is an online social networking program with software designed to interact with Facebook. Details about this project will be announced on November 13 at the benefit. We hope you will embrace the mission of the 12 Angels and attend this benefit. For more information, please contact David Cantor at david@12angels.org. Since there is limited seating space available, please set up your reservations as soon as possible.

In our society, the road of transformation from addicts and alcoholics to productive members of society must be paved with more than good intentions. The 12 Angels want you to help us pave this road through a carefully managed process of investment, education, networking and advisement. With your help, the goal of one hand helping another can become a reality. Together, we can make recovery happen.

Without question, our country is experiencing an economic crisis of historic proportions. We realize many of our supporters are facing difficult challenges at this very moment. We empathize with these challenges as we have trouble as well. The serious nature of the recession should not be minimized. During such a crisis, however, opportunity often arises.

When an alcoholic hits their bottom, it often opens the door to a new way of life. We have similar opportunities with this economic crisis. Nobody knows if the world economy has yet to hit its bottom. We have faith, however, that no matter how difficult the situation becomes, out of any crisis can arise reasons for hope and the promise of real change.

Recently, much has been made in the media that the Chinese word “危機”, translated as “crisis“, is composed of two characters; one for “danger” and one for “opportunity”. Chinese calligraphers have long recognized that great difficulties are linked to great possibilities for growth.

Addicts in recovery experience this truth first-hand. When they relapse, some addicts experience horrible consequences of health, relationships, financial and spiritual. All addicts who relapse come face to face with the progressive nature of their disease. If the addict, however, embraces the program of the 12 Steps and takes direction, early recovery transforms into a path of freedom. Such a fundamental change is based on the willingness of the addict to follow the suggestions provided by the fellowship of the program. If an addict in early recovery open to receiving their experience, strength and hope of others in recovery, such an attitude tends to lead to wonderful, life changing new opportunities.

We can apply the lessons learned from the microcosm of recovery to the macrocosm of the current economic crisis and the challenges we now face. With the mortgage crisis in the banking sector, the resulting credit crunch and the freefall in world markets, there is little doubt (Let’s hope I am right must certainly be getting close to its bottom. The media is dominated today by fear-based stories of foreclosures and bankruptcy. In light of these facts, how can we not view the crisis except through the lens of danger?

At the 12 Angels, we believe this obvious danger also implies opportunity. As in early recovery, such opportunity only can be achieved through action. In the microfinance model, small loans during periods of difficulty to entrepreneurs in recovery truly can become a bridge to future prosperity. When a credit crunch dominates the markets, microfinance is an answer to the crisis. At the same time, hiring from the work pool of people in early recovery engenders gratitude and a willingness to excel from the employee. Nothing compares with being given an opportunity in the midst of a crisis. Taken together, such ingredients lead to a recipe for long-term success.

We know times are hard. We know that we all have fears and worries about the future of the economy and our own finances, but this is also a time of great opportunity for everyone to beyond the fear. We can help the people in recovery struggling to find a new way of life during this turbulent time. We hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to the 12 Angels.

At this time, we need your support and your help to make our vision a reality. Every dollar given to the 12 Angels has gone and will go to create opportunities for people in recovery. We understand that finding money to contribute is a challenge in the midst of such a crisis. The microfinance model of the 12 Angels, however, means a little can go a long way towards helping an entrepreneur establish a business and provide jobs. Every penny given is used wisely through the implementation of business experience and technical expertise. Even in a time of crisis, precise and measured investment can overcome the danger and create true opportunities.

Although he is only 31 years old, the restaurateur and chef Eric Ernest has been sober and working a program for over a decade as an entrepreneur in recovery. At 17, he was an alcoholic “garbage can” who would do any drug he could get his hands on. Still a minor, he had an extensive criminal history that included drug dealings, guns and assault & battery. Once he got sober, his shattered past and tainted record led nowhere. He could not get accepted to college and was turned down by the military. Eric reflects, “I basically had no options, and I thought about being a sober criminal.”

In his rehab, Eric started working in the kitchen and moved right into cooking. Using this experience on a resume, he obtained a dishwashing job at a restaurant. From the lowliest point in the hierarchy, he built himself up and several years later was opening up his first establishment. Eric loved working in a restaurant in early sobriety because it got him out of his head. The long, action-oriented hours, the multi-tasking atmosphere, and the constant demand for focus were beneficial to his early sobriety. As he said, “I was forced to put the principles into practice in order to succeed.” When he became a cook, the meditative part of cooking enhanced his spiritual serenity.

Since opening his first place at 24, Eric has started six restaurants as either an owner or a profit sharing partner with multi-unit, multi-concept restaurant groups. Since the industry is network-based and tightly woven, Eric estimates he has gotten jobs for 400 alcoholics and addicts in recovery, and a vast majority of those in early sobriety. Although the number stunned this blogger, I was convinced when Eric received two phone calls while I interviewed him at Starbucks. The first was from a sponsor looking for a job for his sponsee, and the second was from a friend who was opening a new restaurant and looking for workers. Laughing, Eric mentioned that he receives such calls virtually every day of the week.

I asked him why he would put his reputation on the line by recommending those in early sobriety for jobs to his business associates. He related two key points to me: 1) The restaurant business is based on word-of-mouth, and you tend to go with what you know. When people he respects in the program recommend a person in early sobriety, he sides with his faith in them. 2) A direct attempt at making an impact by offering to others in the program what was freely given to him. The restaurant business provides a fast track to life because a worker must multi-task, be willing and have people skills. The only challenge with workers in early sobriety has been the mental aspect. When they cannot shut their heads off, the alcoholic conditions makes it much harder to be a worker among workers and keep focused for long periods of time. Nevertheless, Eric estimates that 90% of the people he recommended in early sobriety have kept their jobs for at least a year. Overall, the track record created by workers in early sobriety is so impressive, it has allowed Eric to return to the productive well over and over again.

Eric Ernest will be speaking at a future Entrepreneurs In Recovery meeting. He currently has several restaurant projects in the works, and he is seeking funding. He notes that in a difficult economy, mid-level restaurants tend to thrive. Why? Because the clientele of the high-level restaurants trickle down and spend more money at the mid-levels than their typical customers. Since they no longer go to Spago, they now show up at the Cheesecake Factory. If anyone is interested in learning about Eric’s projects, he can be contacted at foie_gras@hotmail.com.