Flatbush Caton Market Micro Entrepreneur Relief Fund

The Flatbush Caton Market (FCM) team is raising direct cash assistance funds to aid our vendors in the wake of the Covid-19 economic shut-down. The Caribbean vendor marketplace was established in 2000 to protect local street vendors from police harassment and provide a permanent facility to sell their wares. FCM vendors are now our community elders, enriching Brooklyn with the diverse cultures of the Caribbean diaspora through their micro businesses. 

Like too many high-barrier entrepreneurs, these mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers operate at the edge of the formal economy. They lack the banking relationships or operational capacity needed to access government responses to the Covid-19 economic crisis, including the PPP and EIDL programs.   

Meanwhile, the health epidemic is not over. As older adults, FCM vendors face acute risks from Covid-19. The virus has claimed too many in our community, and the disparate impact on black and brown residents means that FCM vendors face a steeper climb to recovery. The FCM re-opening requires careful navigation to protect the vulnerable population central to all market activity.

Funds raised through this campaign are intended to meet whatever urgent needs have emerged for vendors as a result of Covid-19 hardship and the forced market interruption. Our entrepreneurs know best what they need. Our goal is to support them in meeting their immediate needs and preparing for long term stability. 

Every dollar raised through this campaign will be distributed directly to and equitably among FCM vendors. Direct cash assistance provides an immediate, simple mechanism for reducing unforeseen burdens of the moment. Delivering assistance in cash form is imperative, as vendors are at various points on the path to fully formalized operations. Upon receiving the campaign funds, the Flatbush Caton Market team and partners will:

1. Convene the vendor community and publicly confirm the total amount to be distributed to each member

2. Schedule individual meetings for direct distribution of cash awards to each vendor  

3. Distribute cash funds

4. Deliver records of vendor receipt to the campaign fiscal sponsor, ioby

The power and grace of New York City lies in its countless unsung heroes - especially the culture bearers who bring the world to the city's streets, stalls and stores through tireless labors of love. Flatbush Caton Market is a special institution: its role is as much cultural as it is economic. The market's very existence is a testament to the immeasurable community value of black and brown immigrant entrepreneurs. Twenty years ago, former Councilwoman Dr. Una Clarke recognized the intrinsic value created by Flatbush's Caribbean street vendors and established a formal indoor market where ambition could be met with dedicated support. 

Today, Flatbush Caton Market vendors are our elders, providing the goods we need and the comfort we seek. We come to shop, but we also come to keep traditions alive. We come to commune in Kreyol and Patois and Spanish while shopping for Labor Day. We come to find a familiarity that transports us to the markets of the islands. We come to celebrate the Caribbean through literature, music and food. 

The inspiration for FCM echoes enduring themes of today: the right for black and brown people to be safe and to have full access to economic opportunity. The FCM of yesterday served as a sanctuary, protecting vulnerable street vendors from police harassment. That initial move to safety put vendors on the track to formalizing their businesses. Through direct assistance, partnerships and capital access, FCM businesses will be stable enough to absorb hardship and weather emergencies, and ultimately, create generational wealth. But we aren’t there yet.

This is a critical moment in the FCM experiment. Vendors are operating from a temporary location at 2184 Clarendon Avenue while a new market building is constructed at the corner of Flatbush and Caton. The forthcoming Caton Flats will include a state-of-the-art business incubator designed to build a strong black and brown entrepreneurship ecosystem and economic hub for all of Brooklyn. The renovated Flatbush Caton Market will preserve the very micro businesses that started it all two decades ago. This hybrid approach is an opportunity to fulfill the promise of FCM and expand its mandate to empower micro-entrepreneurs throughout the NYC region and the Caribbean diaspora writ large. The Caton Flats development and redevelopment of FCM models a new kind of economic development – led by a team of black and brown people - creating a response to the gentrification uprooting black and brown communities.

Fostering equitable economic development – where vulnerable residents are respected and cultural businesses preserved - means doing things the hard way. This transitional period has come with setbacks and put vendors in a tough position. The relocation took vendors away from their longtime customer base. Building relationships with a new market management team has taken time, patience and faith. As the temporary market gained traction through new cultural programming, Covid-19 and the economic shut-down hit.

So much is uncertain yet one thing is for sure: we need all of you on this journey. Your donation is a direct investment in current FCM vendors, supporting them in recovery, and continuing their path to formalization and beyond. Your dollars are a vote of confidence in the future entrepreneurs of FCM and their paths over institutional barriers to ingenuity. Your contributions are a demand for a generative economic model that values justice as the highest outcome.