In this episode of the California Life Podcast, host Sergey Ivanenko interviews Sergey Cherepkov, President and CEO of the Slavic American Chamber of Commerce (SACC). Cherepkov outlines the Chamber’s founding in 2009 and its mission to promote and support Slavic‑owned small businesses across California, serving a community of roughly 1.2 million people. He describes core services such as advocacy, education, and facilitating access to capital and regulatory guidance. The conversation shifts to the Chamber’s COVID‑19 response, where SACC partnered with Sacramento city and county agencies to provide technical assistance, grant applications, and marketing support to over 200 businesses, regardless of ethnicity. Cherepkov then details the Chamber’s ongoing humanitarian program for Ukrainian refugees arriving after the 2022 invasion, assisting more than 200 families with housing, immigration paperwork, employment authorization, ESL classes, food, clothing, and school enrollment, in collaboration with local churches and the Slavic Assistance Center. The interview also highlights the upcoming Multicultural Business and Career Expo, positioning the Chamber as a community‑wide outreach partner. Cherepkov shares his additional leadership roles—Board President of the Placer County Office of Education and Director of School Parent and Governmental Relations for Gateway Community Charters—underscoring his broader impact on education for over 60,000 students, including many Ukrainian newcomers. Finally, he invites listeners to become members, donors, or volunteers, providing a dedicated phone line (279‑888‑4024) for assistance and emphasizing that all donations flow directly to services.
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Welcome to California Life Podcast. I'm Sergey Ivanikov and today we have our guest Sergey Chiripkov. Sergey Chiripkov is Slavic American Chamber of Commerce President and CEO. Sergey, how are you?
Sergey, I'm doing well. Thank you for the invitation.
Thank you for coming. Welcome to our studio. We would like to talk more about activity you're doing on behalf of Slavic American Chamber of Commerce. I know you have a lot of titles and you're very proactive in our community. Let's start with Slavic American Chamber of Commerce. Can you tell us a little bit more about your activity?
So we started Slavic American Chamber in 2009 and actually you, Sergey, and Russian American Media was very important One of the founding members of the Slavic American Chamber.
Yeah, I remember that time.
So we officially incorporated in 2009 and with the goal to promote and advance Slavic American businesses in the state of California. And as you know, we have well over like 1.2 million Slavic people in the state. You know, nobody really knows, but I think this is like the conservative estimate. So, when— after the start, we kind of focused on advocacy and education for small businesses because a lot of our immigrant families, they own small businesses. They come here and they start. Correct. And this is one of the big advantages of our culture, that people are very entrepreneurial. But they do need to have resources, they need to have proper information about how to do things. And I'll say, I'll give you a couple examples. You know, a lot of times they need capital to expand their business, either purchase a building or they need to expand the payroll. And we work with our partners' banks to help them with that. Also the advocacy, you know, navigating through the laws and regulations of California. It's not an easiest task, as you know.
It is.
And then we, we, when we got to 2020, the COVID crisis hit and, you know, immigrant community was very impacted, as you know, from lack of information, lack of access to various prevention measures and so on, you know, like the sanitations and, you know, like access to various medications, vaccines and so on. To the point where like people just didn't have information about how to get help, you know, with, with some programs that either federal or state government was offering. So our chamber stepped in.
Inform.
We work very closely with the City of Sacramento. We work very closely with the County of Sacramento. We are part of Inclusive Economic Development Council that has all the chambers in the area and property business districts. We also work very closely with the City of Rancho Cordova, with the City of Roseville, so with all those municipalities. And over a period of time, we were able to help over 200 businesses with the technical assistance such as applying for different grants, helping them with marketing plan. And that was not only Slavic. So we don't discriminate. Right. So anyone was able to access this program. So we're kind of like cutting back on this a little bit so that the program that we had with the city concluded back in March. So the program that we have with the unincorporated county is going through end of this calendar year. And at the end, I'm going to give a phone number. So if you're a business that was impacted by COVID and you are unincorporated, Sacramento County, you can call us and we'll see what we can do to help you.
Okay, great help.
Yeah, so the other program that I would like to mention is that as of February and March of last year, we had a lot of people escaping the war in Ukraine.
More than 10,000 across the border.
Yes, so nobody really have the exact number, but you know, the estimate based on how many people churches helped How many people came through various nonprofits. So we're looking at over 10,000 people that came through.
Right.
Most of them actually staying in Sacramento. So we were able to help, just our chamber, we were able to help over 200 families, you know, with that. That's starting last year, and we work very closely with the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance. So the most common issues that people deal with is housing, access to housing. It is the immigration paperwork.
Right.
It is ability to get employment authorization and get a job, enroll into classes for English as a second language. So those are the most common needs. And then, of course, the food. A lot of them come and they just simply don't have enough food or they don't have clothing for them or for their children. School enrollment, that's another thing that we were able to help. So we work very closely with the Ukrainian church, Spring of Life, also known as Soul Church. Um-hmm. And we work very closely with Slavic Assistance Center also. That's another partner in Sacramento County. So that's been very successful. It is ongoing program. So if you are from Ukraine and you are refugee that came after April of 2022 and you need help, so you can give us a call. So we'll see what we can do. And let me give— let me give you some—
So it's ongoing program. It's not finished.
It is ongoing. It will not be indefinitely. So it will have a stop at the end of the year, most likely. But at this point, It is still ongoing, yes, and we do have case managers that can help. But also, if you want to help, you know, and you're listening to the program and you have some resources that you want to donate, that's that's another way that you can have impact, yes,
or provide some employment
opportunity. Now employment opportunity, or you just want to help with with some resources. So the phone number, which is the voicemail to call, is two seven nine. 279-888-4024. Once again, it's 279-888-4024. Typically, we try to respond within 1 business day. Sometimes we get a lot of calls, as you can imagine, so please leave your information. You can also text that number, but yeah, you need to leave your contact information and the questions.
Name, phone number, and question regarding the visa.
Name, phone numbers, and the question regarding the visa for the call, and some— one of our team members will
That's great. Thank you very much, Sergey, for providing these wonderful resources. And by the way, I want to appreciate for your help with upcoming Multicultural Business and Career Expo. It's regarding jobs opening and positions available in our region. Exactly this event is dedicated for these people who looking for a job opportunity. And it's like American Chamber of Commerce playing big role in outreach and bringing these resources to our region.
We're happy to do it, Sergey. I know the Russian-American Media for many years, you guys were helping to put together a business expo. You know, it's been going on for quite some time. 14 years, yeah. Very successfully. So, we're happy to help. You know, we're an outreach partner, we're a community partner, and we're really happy to help because this is a great resource not only for Slavic people but also for anyone who's interested in either getting a job or learning more about different business resources.
That's exactly why we're putting together this event. Right. Sergey, tell our viewership about other positions, about other seats. I know that you're serving on different organizations in our region.
Yes, well, and each of them probably would be worth another podcast, but I can briefly mention that as my community service, I am elected to the Board of Education of Placer County. So we have approximately 60,000 students 60,000 students in Placer County that we don't directly oversee, but we have some impact on them. There's different county programs that are offered for school districts and for individual schools and individual students that we actually govern and oversee. So that's one. And this year I'm serving as a board president of the Placer County Office of Education. Congratulations. Yes, thank you. And then also another position that I hold is I am a director of school parent and governmental relations for Gateway Community Charters. And the Gateway Community Charters is probably the largest in the area charter school management organization. So we have 10 charter schools in Sacramento area, and there's 9 in Sacramento, 1 in Yolo County. Most of them have very large Slavic population, and we have enrolled over 600 students that actually came as a result of the war in Ukraine. Yeah,
that's a big help for our community.
Yes, I would say that, you know, there's some school districts that do a lot of work, like San Juan, you know, comes to mind. I mean, they have a team that work and help, but then also You know, our employees are like very proactively helping those families.
Yeah, you're providing great resources for our community. How community can help you, Slavic Chamber of Commerce?
Well, if you're a business, you can be a member. You can go on slavicamericanchamber.org website and you can join there. You can also send us a message so we can follow up with you. That would be one. Of course, we're like, we do have 501 charitable organization. So if you would like to donate, you know, you can always do that. And those, those money go— all of them go directly to services and help. So we don't take a dollar out of it.
Okay, so we invite our community and any communities that living in our region join Chamber of Commerce, Slavic American Chamber of Commerce, and become as a member, volunteer, Donor, sponsor, right? Yes. Whatever position you would like to take.
Where you feel comfortable and interested in doing it.
And we would like to say thank you to Sergey Cherepkov, again, President and CEO, Slavic American Chamber of Commerce and board director of at least 2 organizations. Probably you have more, but we'll talk about this in our—
I serve on multiple ones.
Right, in next programs. Thank you, Sergey.
Thank you, Sergey Ivanenko, for invitation. I really appreciate it, appreciate our partnership for all those years.
Okay, stay connected with California Life podcast for future programs.
