In November 2014, Kiva City Louisville launched with an event at Honest Home, borrower Sandra's beautiful sustainable home supplies store, that was attended by Mayor Greg Fischer and other supporters of innovative approaches to economic development. In November 2015, we funded our 50th local loan, bringing the grand total of Kiva’s impact in this community to date to $273,825. Not one dollar went to tobacco, because our new cash crops are ingenuity... Continue Reading >>
Josie is an 8th-generation Kentuckian on both sides of her family, and proud to return to her hometown of Louisville to help create opportunities for people in poverty. Since using education to overcome poverty herself, she has been dedicated personally and professionally to its eradication. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Columbia University and became a journalist focused on issues of domestic poverty. Vexed by stories of educational inequity, she joined Teach For America and taught creative writing and reading at middle schools in Indianapolis. From there, she moved to Oakland, CA to lead the academic department of a nonprofit called College Track that prepares low-income high school students of color to be the first in their families to go to and graduate from college. She is eager to join Kiva Zip in combating poverty in America by bolstering the chances of budding entrepreneurs.
Fellows Blog Posts by Josie Raymond
Jul 6, 2015
United States
If you see a bug in your house, do you reach for a can of Raid? Blair Leano-Helvey, a Kiva Zip borrower in Louisville, KY, wants you to know there’s a better solution. Better for you and your family, better for the planet, and better for small business. If you see a bug in your house, she wants you to…buy more bugs.
For the past several years, Blair has run Entomology Solutions, a company that “...
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