In the Spotlight

Honey Art Studio is creating brighter futures for Black youth and young adults in San Francisco's historic Fillmore neighborhood with the support of an AHEAD economic development grant, delivered in partnership with FHLBank San Francisco member CDFI Community Vision Capital & Consulting.

We all have a critical role to play in reducing and eliminating the racial wealth gap.

 

Risa Blumlein Keeper

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) serve as lenders whose mission is to provide fair, responsible financing to rural, urban, Native, and other communities that mainstream finance doesn’t traditionally reach. CDFI’s specialize in lending to individuals, organizations, and businesses in under-resourced communities, offering clients financial education, business coaching, and low-interest rate loans that increase economic potential and help build wealth.

Community Vision Capital & Consulting partnered with Ericka Scott, founder of Honey Art Studio, to apply for grant funding to support programs that offer youth and young adults the opportunity to explore career pathways in creative fields such as fashion and interior design, photography, architecture, and more. Honey Art Studio received a $25,000 AHEAD grant in 2022.

They come in thinking they have only two options: get a 9-to-5 job or get into the fast life.

 

Ericka Scott, Founder, Honey Art Studio

Honey Art Studio is a space that acknowledges the creativity, longevity, ingenuity, and faith of Black people. It provides participants with career resources that they may not have access to otherwise, including hands-on learning and tools and guidance to make informed decisions about career options. Through Honey Art’s rotating mentorship program, participants are exposed to different scenarios of what success looks like, thus widening their understanding of what opportunities lie ahead.   

“The fashion industry is really very popular among teenagers and younger adults,” says Ericka. “But they come in thinking they have only two options in life: one is to get a 9-to-5 job, the other is to get into the ‘fast life.’ What we do at Honey Art Studio is to show them there is so much more in between.”

Since becoming a member of FHLBank San Francisco, Community Vision & Capital Consulting has sponsored 17 AHEAD grants. “We all have a critical role to play in reducing and eliminating the racial wealth gap,” says Risa Blumlein Keeper, Community Vision Capital & Consulting (Interim Director 2022-2023).

Honey Art Studio changes lives. “Without Honey Art Studio, I would be lost, I would be less focused,” says Honey Art Studio participant, Anthony Donohue. “I now have something to look forward to everyday when I wake up.” The program has served over 500 community members of all ages in the Fillmore, Western Addition, Bayview-Hunters Point, and Excelsior districts, 90 percent of whom are low-income people of color.

FHLBank San Francisco's voluntary AHEAD economic development grant program is designed to strengthen relationships between Bank members and nonprofits that have real on-the-ground expertise in creating economic opportunity in underserved communities.