EnrichHER is proud to fund underinvested women, founders of color, and other underrepresented business owners so they can create products and services that better reflect the input of the people they serve and continue enriching their communities.
We will announce the recipient of EnrichHER’s $5,000 grant on March 31st, but there are more applicants who will each receive a $500 grant to accelerate their growth. Each $500 grant recipient will also receive a scholarship to EnrichHER’s Business Financing Accelerator, which trains diverse founders to connect to over $100,000 in funding through grants, loans, venture capitalists, pitch competitions, and other untapped sources of capital.
Want to Accelerate Your Financial Success?
Don’t see your name here? You can still join EnrichHER’s Business Financing Accelerator. The program gives founders like you the training to secure critical funding for their business and expedite growth while plugging them into a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who can open new doors to opportunity.
The next cohort begins soon. Click here to learn more and enroll.
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Now, meet the recipients!
$500 Small Business Grant Recipients
Brianna Hairlson
About Bri’s Dance Place
At Bri’s Dance Place, we just don’t teach dance, we teach life! Bri’s Dance Place was birthed while attending Howard University in the Dance Minor program. We have been in the Northwest Indiana community since 2012.
7 years later, we officially opened our doors to work with ALL ages, stages, and abilities. From our Tots N’ Tutus class for 2-3 year old’s, to our nationally recognized Bump N’ Dance for expectant moms, and our Creative Dance Therapy for students who have experienced trauma or have special needs, we truly offer the joy of dance to all!
Our mission is to positively impact the lives of individuals through dance by building community, providing discipline, character development, and confidence through age appropriate choreography, music, and costuming from the best instructors in the industry and exposure to international arts related and performance opportunities.
We are changing our customer’s lives through dance!
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
In 2019, when I went to sign the lease to open our first physical location, no later than 2 weeks, my mom ended up having a massive stroke in addition to her cancer diagnosis. I was with her sometimes 12 hours a day while she completed rehab, in addition to completing the build out on the studio, and tending to my husband and son who would soon turn 1. When my mom passed away in December, our studio had just had it’s grand opening on October 26, 2019. My mother is my inspiration to continue going and growing the studio. She never walked the studio, but she was the one who always pushed me to pursue my dreams.
Az Yeamen
About Bridge 17 Scriptwriter’s Studio
The facility also features a flexible workspace for the writing lifestyle. The rustic style decorum lends itself to creativity. It provides the offices, desks, and coffee (among other amenities) so that the writer can focus on his/her script. “If itis in any way connected to the craft of storytelling, we accommodate it here,” Yeamen offers. One of the most exceptional offerings is a team of on-staff writers for the benefit of writers.”We understand the world of the writer because we are writers,” Yeamen muses. Writers are always in and out of the facility, comparing notes, checking up on one another’s projects, and probing for inspiration.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
I started my career like most writers – working an 8 to 5, taking care of home at night, then writing when inspiration hit me here and there. After a producer friend pitched an idea, I raised my hand to complete the project. Three days later the script was sold – I was bitten by the bug and turned pro. I found myself ignoring my day job to write. So eventually, I was let go and had to make my natural-born passion and skillset work to pay bills. Talk about an inciting incident.
Now, I am an evangelist for independent scriptwriters. All forms of media – not just the Hollywood Studios are grasping trying to find content. They’re looking for your work, your ideas, but they want a professional to work. A writing professional understands the marketability of scripts, the collaboration, the rewrites, brand management, concise storytelling – most importantly they know how to work with producers to execute changes in a script.
Tiffany Kirk
About Project Restart
Project Restart is a 501c3 that aims to reduce recidivism among formerly incarcerated individuals by exposing them to education and training program opportunities, employment opportunities and teaching them the key fundamentals of entrepreneurship. In addition, participants are matched with mentors and pitch for capital for their next steps.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
The inspiration for my brand “Project Restart” is this program allows a person to do just that, restart their dreams, their training, their businesses or whatever other pathway they desire. The logo includes a replay symbol to signify that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself as the person you want to be. Second chances are possible through Project Restart.
Dawn Myers
About The Most
Dawn Myers, founder and CEO, has been cooking natural hair solution in the kitchen since way, way back. Most recently, she has channeled that creative energy in the tech space to build THE MOST, a marketplace and hub for natural hair enthusiasts looking for the latest and greatest in Afro Tech.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
I started THE MOST because for Black women, basic hair hygiene and grooming is excessively complicated and cumbersome.
Embracing my natural hair has given me a sense of self worth in ways too profound to describe, but the world doesn’t accommodate my hair type.
We’re changing that by making hardware that major industry players lack the cultural insight to develop.
Brianna Hawkins
About Two Chicks and a Picnic
We are a luxury event-planning service that specializes in bohemian-style picnics, intimate events, and tailored experiences. We specialize in creating events that require little to no effort from the client by completely managing the planning, setup, and clean-up. While we started our business primarily hosting intimate picnics, we are slowly expanding into the multilayer event sector of our business through setting up for baby showers, birthday parties, holiday events, photo setups, anniversaries, proposals, and more by also including more elaborate features such as balloon arches, grass walls, floral walls, floral arrangements, backdrops, etc. We also provide client consultations for their own do-it-yourself (diy) set-ups and interior design planning.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
We were inspired when planning an event for a mutual friend. We wanted to create a memorable low-maintenance experience for her. In the process, we fell in love with the design and event planning journey we embarked on. We worked well together and had already been racking our brains on how to start a business together. It became the perfect storm for Two Chicks and A Picnic to be born. Since the planning of that bridal picnic, we have been able to learn from other people in the field and evolve tremendously from where we started. We love a good picture, creating memories that will last a lifetime, and stress-free environments. These are the primary drivers we use when planning our event. We want our clients to feel special, so no two events are exactly alike and there is always a surprising personalization for them to enjoy. We are also super planners and organizers; we love the details and we love convenience.
Premise Martin
About Pedilicious Footwear
Founded by Premise Martin, The Premise Collection has the long-awaited solution for getting a pedicure in a New York minute. The toe-separating Pedi-Licious Sandals have transformed the dreaded drying-time experience after a fresh coat of polish. With a growing selection of styles, the Pedi-licious sandals brand understands the frustration with nicks and smudged polish. Each new patented design keeps the customer’s personal style, posture, and valued time at its core. The arch support helps to align the foot, hip, and back relieving ailing pains associated when wearing non arch-supported sandals.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
After deciding to splurge on a spa pedicure prior to an evening event, Premise Martin spent 2-hours getting pampered. The long overdue reflexology massage sent her into a deep slumber, but was hastily interrupted by the failed attempt to shove foam dividers between her toes. It was now time for the polish! Her unanticipated lengthy pedicure didn’t allow a second to dwell on the eternal drying time to preserve the fresh coat. A hurried exit in a pair of paper faux flip-flops was soon followed by smudged polish, with a few questionable objects stuck to it. It was in this moment that Premise thought, “There has to be a better way!” and channeled her frustration into finding a solution for the individual on the go.
The Pedi-Licious Sandal is the first line from the The Premise Collection by Premise Martin, stay tuned this innovative designer is just getting started!
Christine Roman
About Community Does It
Founded in April of 2021, Community Does It is a 501(c)3, nonprofit organization that uses a combination of Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR), grassroots organizing and traditional public health to employ a new approach to public health: for the community by the community.
Through the application of CBPAR methods, this initiative was conceived from the gathering of community members from the 75217 zip code to understand a common interest in improving the public health of their community. During this process we learned that community members had long desired a mental health center for their children and teens. They agreed that the center should not only provide counseling services, but also educational support, emotional support and a network of resources for them as parents to feel equipped in helping their children.
Therefore, the first service already being offered is connecting families to other community health resources available for them through organizations in the Dallas area. When children receive a diagnosis, all too often their parents are not connected with the resources that could help them. The second service currently offered is family support and empowerment through workshops. This support consists of education on the abilities and wisdom that the community women already have and the steps in using those tools to make an impact on the environment their children are growing up in. The third layer of services will be counseling therapy for children ages 4-18 at $20 per session regardless of insurance status once our clinic is built.
What Inspired You to Start This Business?
In my many years in education, especially during my years as principal of Cristo Rey Brooklyn and of Cristo Rey Dallas High School, I identified in many ways with the communities that I was serving. The vast majority of our students were from marginalized and underserved communities of minorities where either the awareness of opportunities and even the opportunities themselves were not available without much advocating and hard work to change our wider systemic culture. I myself, growing up in Puerto Rico, experienced both poverty and the power that both education and opportunity have in bringing about change in one’s life. Far too many times did I see entire communities, and especially the children and teens of those communities, stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and the challenges that come along with that, due to lack of access to not only quality education but also quality public health resources, including mental health resources.
When I arrived in Pleasant Grove (the 75217 zip code) in 2014 and founded Cristo Rey Dallas High School, I recognized not only a community facing these same challenges but also a population with a wealth of wisdom, knowledge and love for their community. The day-to-day dealing with the families I encountered and partnered with as principal showed me that this was a community that possessed strong family values and a genuine care and generosity toward others. Inherent in these traits is the hope to provide a community that offers hope for the future of their children and a strong desire to bring about the change necessary to create a community that would do just that. Thus, as I was preparing to move on from education and working on a doctoral dissertation on analyzing the effect of leadership development through community organizing interventions for Latino, immigrant parents have in the development and sustainability of parent/school accountability relationships, deep in my heart I knew I had to do something more with these families and with these families. Together with my fellow co-founder, Raul Estrada, we approached the community about what they saw as the most urgent public health need for the community and the overwhelming response was support for their children and teen’s mental health needs.
From the start, the whole initiative has been constructed by community members, from what services are offered, to the design of the center, its name, our logo, our social media presence, hours of operation, focus group topics, workshop curriculum, employees and even board members. Thus, our name and logo were thought up and designed by actual community members who described this initiative as an act of love. They are the inspiration for our brand and of all of our work.
About EnrichHER:
EnrichHER is a financial technology platform that matches revenue-generating companies led by women and founders of color to individual and institutional sources of funding. Since 2017, EnrichHER has deployed upwards of $4 million through its platform and matched business-owners to $13 million in working capital through its Accelerator. By providing capital, coaching, and connections, we are fueling the fastest-growing demographic of business owners. Our network has engaged with over 23,000 advocates through its digital community and in-person activations.
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