The Miami-based AWE Foundation is bringing a program to provide entrepreneurial support, mentorship and a digital business platform to Black and Latinx female entrepreneurs in Metro Detroit.
Part of a larger effort to support 75 women across Detroit, Baltimore and Miami, the project builds on a similar program the foundation's leaders operated in India over the past few years.
"Women are an underutilized resource of a community," said Seema Chaturvedi, chair of the AWE Foundation.
She points to research done by McKinsey Global Institute that another $28 trillion in economic value would be added to the global economy with increased participation from women.
Specifically, "there is a lot of potential among Black and Latinx women that's being undertapped for the purposes of sustainable economic development," Charturvedi said.
"If we want a world of gender equity, we need to start by empowering these women economically ... you empower a woman economically, there's a domino effect."
Familial, psychological, sociocultural and legal positions improve when women are empowered, which positively impacts their access to power and influence and eventually results in gender equality, said Chaturvedi, a member of Crain's 2001 40 Under 40, has been actively supporting entrepreneurism in Southeast Michigan for 20 years.
The program is open to 25 Black and Latinx women entrepreneurs from Metro Detroit in households with less than $50,000 in income. They will receive a four-day bootcamp in November with experienced faculty to provide training in areas including digital marketing, resolving gender bias in entrepreneurship, securing funding, legal consideration, optimizing operations, presentation and communication and go-to-market strategy.
Participants will also receive support from a mentor in their field and admission to a global online platform for continued peer-to-peer learning.
The women from Metro Detroit will be the first in the country invited to participate in the global business platform the Awe Foundation is developing to enable women from all over the world to do business with each other and share peer-to-peer learning, Charturvedi said. At the same time, the platform will help collect data that informs policy advocacy around gender equity.
AWE is in talks with local foundations and donors in Metro Detroit as it seeks to raise $300,000 to cover the costs of employees to support the program in all three cities and to fund development of the digital platform, Chaturvedi said.
Chaturvedi said four women she's known for years are helping to line up faculty and mentors and to cultivate relationships in Southeast Michigan. They include:
- Priscilla Perkins, senior director of development, Beaumont Health Foundation
- Chandana Kathuria, vice president of information technology, Securitas
- Rachna Sharan, director of information technology service and performance management at Emergent Holdings-Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
- Beth Greenberg Morrow, attorney, Beth Greenberg Morrow PLLC
The Awe Foundation is taking applications from Black and Latinx entrepreneurs on its website through Oct. 19 and plans to name participants in November.
Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, preferably a business that they have already launched and are looking to grow, Chaturvedi said.
"As a foundation, we work from ideation to scale-up ... but we are deliberately choosing women who have an established business because it shows commitment ... hunger and willingness and capacity to pay it forward" by committing to mentor five to 10 other women entrepreneurs, she said.
That model multiplied the program's impact where 575 women participated over a three and a half year period through 2019. Those women, in turn, mentored another 6,500 women, Chaturvedi said, noting that self-reported data from those women indicates 85 percent of their businesses are still in operation.
In Detroit, the Awe Foundation is relying on local partners to help reach candidates for the program, including the Detroit Regional Chamber, Rebel Now, Detroit Cares and the Asian Indian Women Association.
The foundation plans to announce the Detroit applicants chosen for the program on its website and social media sites on Nov. 11.
The four-day bootcamp will take place in December, and 30 hours of remote one-on-one mentoring will begin in early January.
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Miami-based Awe Foundation to bring entrepreneurial support for Black, Latinx women to Detroit - Crain's Detroit Business
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