The Habersham County Chamber of Commerce and the Latin American Chamber of Commerce have entered into a partnership to help Northeast Georgia’s Hispanic/Latino community find the resources they need to grow and develop businesses.
On Monday, Oct. 18, the Habersham Chamber President Mary Beth Horton and Latin American Chamber President Alejandro Coss signed a memorandum of understanding that made the partnership official.
“We’re excited to partner with you guys,” Horton told the LACC. “[We] hope that our partnership will serve as a catalyst for other chambers in the region to join this collaboration with you [the LACC] as well.”
The goal of the partnership is to present opportunities to strengthen and develop Hispanic/Latino-owned businesses across Habersham County and the Northeast Georgia area by offering classes and resources sponsored by the LACC in Habersham County.
“This new partnership is […] giving us the opportunity to bring our entrepreneurship programs outside of the Metro area,” Coss says. “And not only outside of the Metro area, but in a part of the state where [there aren’t] any of these types of programs focused on the Latino community.”
According to Coss, approximately 45 percent of Georgia’s Hispanic/Latino community lives outside of the Metro Atlanta area. He says working with the Habersham County Chamber of Commerce will help Northeast Georgia’s Hispanic/Latino community find the resources they need to build their businesses.
“We wanted to recognize, and we do recognize, the importance of the Latino community in the mountains and North Georgia,” Coss said.
Coss wants Habersham’s Latin American business owners and business hopefuls to know the LACC and Habersham Chamber are there to support them in their business endeavors.
“We’re here to help, we want them to know that we are a resource,” Coss says. “We are creating a partnership with a great organization, the Habersham Chamber of Commerce, which is right here [in their community]. The goal is for them [members of the Hispanic/Latino community] to be able to receive the assistance that we can provide with the help of the chamber here.”
