Midlands Latino Community Development Corporation (MLCDC) Recommended for $800,000 Expansion to Serve Refugees

As the only organization in Omaha that delivers culturally fluent financial education and business training, Midlands Latino Community Development Corporation (MLCDC) made a natural transition to serving Middle Eastern and African refugees in 2018. Now, the center is poised to become a key financial services provider for refugees—it just needs the Nebraska legislature to approve its $800,000 expansion into a training center on Q Street. 

The new training center for refugees was submitted by MLCDC as part of the $335 million Economic Recovery Grant program, and the expansion was one of just 35 projects out of more than 350 recommended for funding by the committee. The Economic Recovery Act or Nebraska Legislative Bill 1024 represents historic investment in the state’s most disadvantaged communities that were hardest hit by the pandemic, and aims to make North and South Omaha a thriving business corridor for the region. 

While MLCDC has historically served Latino immigrants, the agency has increasingly been called on to provide financial education and business training to refugees. In addition to offering personal finance classes in Somali and Arabic, MLCDC also has helped a handful of refugees start their own childcare businesses. Childcare is one of the most lucrative and accessible small businesses for refugee women, says Juan Montoya, Executive Director of MLCDC. An in-home childcare center enables refugee women to care for their own small children, increase their income, and provide culturally appropriate childcare services to the community. 

In the past year, MLCDC has helped four refugees in Douglas County become licensed daycare providers. One program graduate is a Syrian refugee who opened Dandelion Daycare LLC in early 2022. MLCDC provided technical assistance in Arabic and helped the woman apply for a childcare provider grant from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The owner, who is a single mother to four children, now operates her own successful childcare center that serves other refugee families of Middle Eastern descent.