Four women are meeting one last time, putting together final details, before the official launch of two new businesses.
“Exciting because we're going to be our own bosses we have our own business and we're going to run it the way we've decided.”
Edith Lopez is one of 6 women who have been working for months to get "Love & Learn Childcare," a babysitting and nanny service off the ground. While Cirenia Dominguez is one of the 15 women starting "Brightly Cleaning, " a housecleaning service.
“Oh wow it's incredible because before I clean myself, it was a lot of work,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez says for domestic workers with language barriers, it can be tough not only to find work, but to create their own opportunities. Being part of a worker cooperative gives her a chance to share the company's profits and also make decisions.
The Staten Island Foundation got them started, through a 70 thousand dollar donation. And La Colmena Community Job Center, and the Center for Family Life trained the women on how to operate a business.
We partner with the communities and instead of helping them find existing jobs where they might be working not so dignified work conditions, we help them create their own business where they actually become business owners and take control over their work,” said Corrina Zuckerman, a Cooperative Developer with the Center for family life.
The new business owners say it's been a lot of hard work but thanks to support from the local community they've been able to get the help they needed
“They helped me a lot because I never speak English…but it's more different so now they give me the classes for English,” said Dominguez.
These budding entrepreneurs hope they'll not only contribute to the Islands economy but create a business model that others might expand or franchise.