HEroes of color - Certificates of recognition

August 2023 - The Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted the Black Business Month Celebration at a ceremony at California Institute of the Arts on Thursday, August 31st — drawing in elected officials, dignitaries and business leaders alike.  Heroes of Color was among one of the local companies to be honored with five awards. The Awards include: Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, Recognition from County of Los Angeles, California Legislature Certificate of Recognition, Black Business Council Certificate of Accomplishment, and A Certificate of Recognition from The City of Santa Clarita. 
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Heroes of Color was recognized for providing enrichment programs for grade-school-aged children as well as workshops on the Business of Freelancing for higher education.  These awards would not have been possible without the help and guidance of some key people from the Small Business Development Center: Catherine Grooms, Bandhana Katoch and Jeffrey Forrest. With the recent success of the National School District Animation program, The Signal Newspaper of met up with David Heredia to learn more about the organizations future objectives.

The event honored two locally owned Black businesses: Heroes of Color and Omni Wound Physicians. Representing Heroes of Color was David Heredia, founder of the organization. Heroes of Color is an educational company that uses children’s books and animation as a tool to help children of color tell stories of their own experiences, as well as provide enrichment programs for grade-school-aged children as well as for higher education.  

“I’m extremely proud of it, especially because a lot of my experiences came from what I did not have when I was graduating from school,” said Heredia. “I didn’t have enough business courses as a child, I wasn’t given permission to draw myself — meaning a Black character. All of my characters did not look like me. So this was liberating and it’s liberating for a child to know that they can draw themselves and feel like they belong, even if everybody around them looks completely different.” - David Heredia Click here for full article