Agencia Y Notaria Cadena: A message to the community

A photo of the Cadena family inside their business prior to the interior gut rehab (Photo courtesy Cadena Family)

The Back of the Yards neighborhood is home to many family-owned businesses like Agencia Y Notaria Cadena, an income tax agency that has been around for more than 50 years.

In July of 2017, Mayor Rahm Emanuel awarded 51 businesses with more than $5 million in grants through the Retail Thrive Zone (RTZ). The initiative targets areas in the South, Southwest and West Sides of Chicago with financial assistance for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to start or upgrade their business.

Amongst one of the award recipients were Agencia Y Notaria Cadena.

Hoping that others in the neighborhood get motivated to take advantage of the services that the city of Chicago offers for small businesses, the Cadenas wanted to share a message with the community. Here’s what they had to say. 

BEFORE: Agencia Y Notaria Cadena facade (Photo of a Google view display)

Ever since our inception, the business efforts and ideals of our father, Mr. Michael Cadena, has instilled pride for our family name that we are trusted amongst our community.

The principle notion of our goals is to build a brighter future for our neighboring communities. In hindsight, we’ve always had this goal among our priorities, though economic and unexpected adversity had hindered our quest in times past. However, now that we have had a significant boost to our business via Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF) grant, we are currently hard at work, instilling the programs we feel are paramount in bringing back both economic and community prosperity to our township.

Our business is based on services that cater to specific needs for individual and family-oriented clientele. These services come in the form of tax services and notary services, as well as an increment effort to utilize immigration projects to which we already had some previous success.

We aim to provide more programs and collaborative projects that keep our goal of community aid near other venues in the Back of the Yards.

In the time since our business began in the old neighborhood, we have seen a myriad of various changes, many which some view as negative impacts in the community. As other neighborhoods had experienced before, the Back of the Yards has gone through times of economic hardship and perilous bouts of uncertainty regarding education and fiscal renovations.

However, there have always been those who have been willing to “stick-it-out” and remain positive, never yielding to negative changes. This form of community pride has bolstered and stabilized both business and family unity.

The SBIF program can provide a wealth of opportunity to credible businesses that adhere to a principle of contributing to the community. For entrepreneurs, such an advantage could create both aid and productivity among already established businesses, as well as an incentive for new and innovative business ventures. We truly appreciate the opportunity SBIF has given us.

During the application process, determination and organization were instrumental. There was also the prospect of trusting that our initial funding would be reimbursed and our work validated. Many thanks to the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council and Sonya Eldridge for informing us about the program and assisting us through the process.

AFTER: Agencia Y Notaria Cadena new facade (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

With our new renovations, we look forward to implementing our services in ways we could not do so in the past, such as using more modern updates in technology to get much faster results and better access to facilities and alternative programs in which we collaborate. Also, the updated equipment is a major benefit to our business in general.

We have a genuine interest in providing helpful services that in some cases can make a major change in the lives of our clientele. We abide in the values of trust, earnest work, and an ongoing effort to keep our services in line with the ever-changing needs for our much-cherished neighborhood of the Back of the Yards.

Thank you, The Cadena Family