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Santa Maria, California – March 20thth Women’s Economy Ventures (WEV, pronounced “wee-ve”) held an awards ceremony at the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum and awarded $412,500 in grants to 55 Hispanic business owners across Santa Barbara County. Recently, 83 entrepreneurs completed her WEV’s “Emprendimiento” program, an eight-week business skills course taught entirely in Spanish. Upon completing the training, business owners had the opportunity to submit a business plan to a competition to win her $7,500 grant to help existing small businesses grow.
The graduates also included 25 business owners who operate child care businesses through a partnership between WEV and Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County. One such participant, Maria Equiva, owner of Tu Casita, a family day center in Santa Maria, said in her graduation speech: And now, thanks to this program, I can call myself an entrepreneur. This program provided us with valuable educational, management, and financial tools and prepared us to become smart business owners focused on growing and running our businesses. ”
Another graduate, Marisa Aji Tobar, arrived in the United States from Guatemala in 2008 with a “suitcase full of dreams and goals.” She started cleaning her own homes on the bus and worked her way up to a supervisory position at a commercial cleaning site, which gave her the idea to start her own business. Currently, Marisa runs her own small business, “Marisa’s Housekeeping Services”, with other employees and a waiting list. Marisa said, “I came to WEV to find guidance, education and advice to grow, but most of all to find hope and reaffirm that dreams can come true.” WEV is the life jacket I need to jump into the water. My goal is to grow my business so that I can employ mothers who benefit from flexible schedules that allow them time with their families. ”
Emprendimiento is a unique program developed by WEV for people with low English proficiency and is funded by the California Employment and Training Panel’s (ETP) Social Entrepreneurship for Economic Development (SEED) initiative. Launched in 2021, WEV’s Emprendimiento program provides training, coaching and funding to help small business owners grow their businesses in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. To date, more than 400 people have participated in the program and $1.54 million in grants have been awarded. For information about the Emprendimiento program, including registration for future cohorts, please visit www.wevonline.org/classes-resources/emprendimiento/.
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