Collaborative effort to assist young entrepreneurs in Hanover, Trelawny

Western Bureau:

Some 60 young entrepreneurs from Hanover and Trelawny who were affected by Hurricane Melissa last October are set to receive much-needed assistance and training under a collaborative programme spearheaded by the Young Women/Men of Purpose (YWOP/YMOP) organisation and the Flow Foundation.

The initiative, which will provide extended training over roughly six months alongside seed funding to help participants restart their enterprises, was officially launched last weekend at the Lucea United Church Hall in Hanover.

Lanisia Rhoden, founder and executive director of YWOP/YMOP, told The Gleaner that the partnership is being implemented through the organisation’s Realise, Embrace, Achieve Your Purpose (REAP) programme, which is designed to help young entrepreneurs regain their footing.

“We use the REAP entrepreneurship programme in helping entrepreneurs to realise, embrace and achieve their purpose through the businesses that they have started,” said Rhoden, a former Manchester festival queen.

According to her, YWOP/YMOP was established in 2009 as her festival queen project and has been actively involved in entrepreneurship initiatives since 2012, formally incorporating the REAP framework in 2015.

“We have done 12 cohorts (under REAP) already, existing in 10 parishes, and we are now at cohorts 13 and 14 (involving Hanover and Trelawny),” she said. “This is our second partnership with the Flow Foundation. We partnered with Flow last year, when we launched the REAP programme in St Thomas, but we are also active in the other parishes through assistance from other partners/funders.”

Rhoden explained that the assistance programme has now taken firm root and is increasingly viewed as a mechanism for upward mobility among its participants.

“All the 60 entrepreneurs – 30 from Trelawny and 30 from Hanover, will go through six weeks of in person training, in subject areas such as marketing for small business, accounting, and health and wellness for entrepreneurs. They will learn how to pitch for funding and get an opportunity to engage with successful entrepreneurs among many other aspects of business training,” she said. “After the six weeks of training, which entails twelve sessions of two days per week, four hours per day, each of the 60 entrepreneurs will be placed with a business mentor, someone who can give them strategies and tips to grow their business.”

“In relation to the business pitch, the top ten entrepreneurs in each cohort will each receive $100,000 to either start, if they are at the idea stage, or to grow their business if already in operation,” she added.

Rhoden noted that the funds will be used to acquire tools, equipment and materials required to start or restart businesses that were disrupted by Hurricane Melissa.

Nicholette Wade, Flow’s customer experience manager, urged participants to fully commit to the training component of the REAP programme and to approach it with an open mind.

Highlighting the partnership with YWOP/YMOP, Wade said the real value lies in the transformation expected to occur once participants are exposed to new ideas and begin to develop the mindset needed for sustained success.

“All of you entrepreneurs, this is your moment. We are giving you the tools, the access and the opportunities, what you do with it is what will define your outcome,” she said.

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