Mujeres Emprendedoras Cooperative was born out of the need to fight involuntary displacement in Westwood.  We wanted to create an economic opportunity for women who did not necessarily have other economic opportunities.  Using an asset-based approach, we assessed the skills and abilities of the women and decided to start a cooperative focused on what we do best. Our initial focus is catering services, making salsa, jewelry, and sharing our learning journey.

 

The cooperative started in 2017 with five member owners with the goal of creating an enterprise to build personal capacity, self-esteem, and financial security.  We value the education aspect because we want to change the mentality and the relationship with money in our community. For this reason, we focus on financial education as a way to achieve intergenerational wealth from our work.  We are also documenting our process to share it with others who might be interested in starting a worker-owned cooperative.