New report identifies diversity gap in supports for women entrepreneurs in Windsor-Essex

A new report is renewing calls for more support for female entrepreneurs in Windsor-Essex who are people of colour.

The report, released by RISE Windsor Essex — an organization that supports entrepreneurial women — shows there is a lack of services for female BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) entrepreneurs in the area.

"For instance, there's no specific Indigenous, immigrant, or Black women-specific ... programs, so that's something we definitely need to address," said Tashlyn Teskey, manager of projects and research at Workforce WindsorEssex, which is a member of the RISE network.

 "Right now, we're finding that they're definitely underrepresented in terms of just the full entrepreneurship ecosystem, especially among women."

Razia Mwondha, who opened a store in Windsor earlier this month, has experienced the struggle of trying to start a business first-hand.

Mwondha, who came to Canada more than 20 years ago from Kenya, said that while she's worked other jobs, she's always worked as a seamstress at home.

"I always had sewing in my house," she said. "Finally, I thought I should get a store."

"It's a dream of mine, so it finally came true."

But getting to the point of opening the store — 7byRaz African Fashion and Accessories — was challenging, Mwondha said on Monday.

"I had to go on YouTube and learn how to open a businesses, what licences I needed, and how to do an incorporation by myself," she said.

There wasn't much financial assistance available either, and in the end, Mwondha covered the costs of opening the store from her savings.

Mwondha said she'd like to see more support for women entrepreneurs who are members of minority groups from all levels of government.

"We don't know who to contact," she said. "If you go online and search, you don't really find anything. And then when you do try to apply, you don't get a response."

"Some of them don't respond, and then the rest, they just say no."

The RISE Needs Assessment Report, which looks at supports for women entrepreneurs in the region, is in its third year.

"The first year, we were able to get kind of a baseline of exactly what we're working with and Windsor-Essex," Teskey said. "And since then, we've been able to identify and make some recommendations on how to improve our entrepreneurial ecosystem."

One of the report's biggest recommendations, Teskey said, is the creation of permanent funding and support staff for women entrepreneurs.

"Whether that comes from capital investment or municipalities, we need to make sure that our programs aren't just running kind of grant to grant, smaller funding opportunities," she said. "That we're really tapped into a long-term success model."

Other measures

The report also recommends various other measures, including training for entrepreneurs in hiring, and programs aimed at medium and large businesses, as many of the current programs are geared at startups.

The report also calls for the creation of a directory of business experts and consultants, and a wage subsidy that would help women develop their own businesses while working full time.

Mwondha said that while she appreciates the report's conclusions, she wants to see concrete change.

"Acknowledging is good, but action is better," Mwondha said. "I commend them for seeing that there's an issue, but we want to see action."

"We want them to find us, or give us an idea of how to get in touch with them, and see if the words and actions actually merge."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.