Image Gallery Story

About the Photo: A microloan from Oregon Microenterprise Network enabled Andrea Moore (pictured at right, with her daughter beside her) to purchase a trailer to provide dog grooming services in Polk and Yamhill counties. MERIT (MicroEnterprise Resources, Initiatives, & Training), a nonprofit co-located at the Chemeketa Small Business Development Center in Salem, worked with her to qualify for the loan, represented here by Executive Director Marcia Bagnall (pictured at left). After she repaid the loan she received a second loan ("step" loan) from OMEN to make repairs and upgrades to her trailer. Photo credit: Valerie Plummer, Oregon Microenterprise Network

Oregon Microenterprise Network (OMEN) used a $100,000 program related investment loan from Meyer Memorial Trust to provide lending capital to low income entrepreneurs in rural Oregon. In addition, OMEN used a $36,000 grant to provide technical assistance to its member organizations to strengthen business support for microentrepreneurs. The CapitalLink loan program of Oregon Microenterprise Network meets the demand for microloan capital in areas of rural Oregon. For more information about OMEN’s CapitalLink program, see http://www.oregon-microbiz.org/programs/capitallink/.