AS another cohort wraps up its final session with the Women Entrepreneurs Project, the CNMI Women’s Association encourages other women to avail themselves of the program.
The pilot project is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and launched earlier this year.
“We’re taking on this project to encourage and empower women to pursue business ownership… This is an initiative that we hope to sustain long-term,” said CWA contractor Roxanne Diaz in an interview with Variety.
She said once the ARPA funds run out, alternate funding sources will be needed to sustain the project.
In the meantime, CWA anticipates that it will be able to conduct training sessions for at least two to three more cohorts.
“Our goal here is to [provide] a place for them to be able to pursue their goals and dreams and start a business,” Diaz said. “We network with different entities and local business owners to really get them what they need, not just to build a safe place to grow, but to really address common barriers… Through the different trainings that we’re doing…we’re now educating our entrepreneurs on how to not just have a business plan, but to know that they’re not alone.”
The project’s guest speakers and collaborators include Bank of Saipan president and chief executive officer John Z. Arroyo who spoke to the women entrepreneurs last week at the Women’s Center.
Arroyo is also the grant administrator of Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together, or BOOST.
CWA has likewise partnered with the CNMI Small Business Development Center Network and the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority.
Through these partnerships, women entrepreneurs learned about available funding sources, how to build and sustain their businesses, and other pertinent information for existing or future businesses.
“This Women’s Center is for everyone,” Diaz said. “We hope that we can have more people accessing the center. We’re here to help, but also empower and encourage, especially our women, to look into pursuing their business, or their dreams and goals through business.”
The center caters to aspiring and existing business owners from all industries.
“We have a variety of businesses or entrepreneurs here. We have folks here who are in the food business. We have people who have established businesses. We have students who are pursuing business. We even have some women who are web developers, work in consulting, or provide professional services. There are several participants who actually have a job and are now pursuing their own business on the side, or even doing it full-time,” Diaz said.
“It’s a pilot project. We have a long way to educating our community about the economics of things and that really, the economy is driven by small engines, small businesses. We can’t just rely on one big fish; we need many different fishes, and we’re hoping that through the CNMI Women’s Association and this initiative, we can teach our people to fish by taking ownership, but also sustaining ourselves long-term,” Diaz added.
The Women Entrepreneurs Project is an initiative of the CNMI Women’s Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2011.
Women entrepreneurs listen attentively as BOOST grant administrator and Bank of Saipan President/CEO John Z. Arroyo presents during a session last week at the Women’s Center.
From left, CNMI Women’s Association contractor Roxanne Diaz, BOOST grant administrator and Bank of Saipan President/CEO John Z. Arroyo, CWA board member and Women Entrepreneurs Project participant and 2019 Miss Marianas Shannon Sasamoto, CWA program assistant Dorina Iginoef and Special Advisor for Women’s Affairs Shirley Ogumoro pose for a photo at the Women’s Center.
