Business

SBA honors Arubah Emotional Health Services

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has named Arubah Emotional Health Services, P.A. the 2019 Minnesota Minority Owned Small Business of the Year. Anissa Keyes founded Arubah (which means “restoration to sound health” in Hebrew) in 2012 to help make mental health services accessible — especially for the African American and low-income communities in and around North Minneapolis.

Published

7 years ago

May 20, 2019

Oakland Post

By MSR News Online

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has named Arubah Emotional Health Services, P.A. the 2019 Minnesota Minority Owned Small Business of the Year.

Anissa Keyes founded Arubah (which means “restoration to sound health” in Hebrew) in 2012 to help make mental health services accessible — especially for the African American and low-income communities in and around North Minneapolis.

Mental health disparities for communities of color are no secret. While everyone is at risk for mental illness and related disorders, Blacks and other communities of color often remain on the sidelines when it comes to accessing treatment that speaks to their needs.

With four locations in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Brooklyn Center, Arubah provides therapeutic services to adults, families, couples, and children, including diagnosing, treatment planning, consulting and advocacy, as well as ongoing care.

“At the SBA we work hard every day to support diversity in small business and to honor the efforts of minority entrepreneurs,” said Nancy Libersky, district director for the SBA in Minnesota in a statement. “Arubah Emotional Health Services is filling a vital role in North Minneapolis and we’re proud to be a part of helping the company succeed in business so it can do more to help the community it serves.”

In 2017, Arubah received an SBA-backed loan from Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF), which nominated Keyes for the award. This funding helped Keyes open her fourth location, the Healing Center, to bring accessible trauma-informed mental health services to the community.

“The impact Arubah Emotional Health Services has frankly cannot be measured by the number of clients it serves or people it employs,” said CRF Regional Director of Business Development Jennifer Ericson in a recent statement. “Every person who comes in contact with the business and Anissa cannot help but walk away feeling more hopeful. She puts out healing into her community and these small ripples will continue changing lives long after a patient leaves their program.”

Even with more than 25 years of social services experience, Keyes continues to seek out ways to improve her own skills sets. As such, she also participated in the SBA Emerging Leaders Program in 2018 to help her better understand her finances and higher-level business strategy.

“There are so many other community members and so many other people that God called alongside me to create this amazing journey,” said Keyes. “The biggest thing that this award gives me is the ability and credibility to be able to do more of the work,” she said.

“It puts me into other arenas to be able to pull other small businesses up and support and lead other people in the right direction.”

She also shared that, as a Black woman from North Minneapolis, it feels good to be recognized in platforms that typically don’t feature people of color. “You work so hard as small businesses and we pour all of who we are into it and when people are able to see that it is important work that is impacting or influencing those around us for the better and acknowledge it, it motivates you to push forward even more,” said Keyes.

Arubah and Keyes was honored at the state’s Small Business Week Awards Luncheon with other small businesses, on May 10 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Park, Minn.

The luncheon is part of 2019 National Small Business Week, May 5-11, which is dedicated to honoring small business owners and their champions across the nation.

For more information on Small Business Week, visit www.sba.gov/NSBW.

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

PRESS ROOM: Centier Bank named #5 “Best Place to Work” by Indiana Chamber of Commerce

Don't Miss

Marsha Ambrosius’ Black hair magic

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

6 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.