Teenager Earns Grant to Help Him Start His Own Business

An entrepreneurial 17-year-old resident of a Boyle Heights housing project received $2,500 from the city’s Housing Authority on Wednesday to help him start his own business.

Pablo Cisneros, who lives in the Pico Gardens housing projects, said he will use the money to set up a company that will sell sports apparel and sports cards at the Fiesta Swap Meet in Pico Rivera.

Cisneros received his start-up money as part of the Youth Enterprise Demonstration Program, which operates through the Housing Authority as the Youth Enterprise Development Institute.

“I’m receiving this money to make my dream come true,” Cisneros said at a ceremony in Lafayette Park. “I grew up in a family where all of my brothers were in a business, and now it’s my dream to finally have my own business.”