Lee and Smith with a photo of the Fall cohort.
A host of New Haven businesses — from beekeeping to cooking classes for children, digital content creation, student loan debt relief, individualized skin care, and skateboarding — launched Wednesday night from the stage of The State House with pitches to potential funders.
The entrepreneurs behind the new enterprises have just completed a 12-week mentorship program run by Collab. Collab in turn hosted Wednesday night’s event, one of its biannual “cohort” presentation events, to enable the entrepreneurs to pitch their enterprises to potential backers.
A standing-room-only crowd filled the State Street venue, greeted by Collab co-founders Margaret Lee and Caroline Smith as well as a buffet provided by Sanctuary Kitchen (“Collab center graduates!” Smith noted) and baklava by Havenly.
A theme of giving back to the community in the name of collective consciousness and cooperation ran through the evening, as each of the cohort’s six members presented their history, mission, business plans, and goals.
Steve Roberts of Push To Start.
“Mentorship matters,” said Steve Roberts, whose Push To Start organization uses skateboarding, digital media and arts, and civic engagement to encourage expression, skill building, advocacy, and well-being. Co-teaching and community building are also major parts of his plan. He emphasized the importance of the children involved in their programs being teachers as well as learners. “I have to make sure I’m humble enough to seek out knowledge from the kids as well,” Roberts said. A New Haven native who was involved in the revamping of Edgewood Skate Park, Roberts encouraged members of the audience to volunteer, spread the word, and donate. He noted during the Q&A after his presentation that he was inspired by those who had helped him in his youth as well as the work he had done with kids as a basketball player. “If people put good into you, you should put good into others,” he said with a smile.
Anne Watkins, who’s launching the Student Loan Fund, told of receiving a gift that assisted with her student loan debt, setting her on the path to learning more about student debt and helping others with theirs. “It’s not a moral failing. It’s a social injustice,” she said about the burden of student loan debt. She showed a short film featuring those who have been affected by such debt. (Read more about the problem from Watkins here.) Her organization’s mission is to “reconstruct the student loan industry and its impact on families and communities by organizing and investing in individuals.” Part of Watkins plan includes offering debt relief “to help make changes that this great city needs to see.” She encouraged those present to talk about it, to get more info at her website including information about workshops to assist those dealing with this burden, and to donate. “It’s all of our responsibility” she added.
Sarah Taylor turned her own personal experience with beekeeping as a healing and empowering activity into the Huneebee Project, aimed at offering training and employment in beekeeping and the creative arts to local child protective and foster care involved youth. A social worker by training, Tayloremploys clinical social workers as mentors in her project as well as beekeepers, who she found have “a delicate intensity that created a joyful, wholesome, and hopeful environment.” Currently selling honey, seed packs and local artists’ vases online, Taylor is hoping to open a brick and mortar business to employ graduates of the program which is ready to begin its third cohort and is hoping to double its number of hives by next year. “We are working on putting the power back into the youths’ hands,” she said, and encouraged those present to sponsor, donate and share.
Cooking Social Kids is also seeking to give children more responsibility in the form of making their own meals as well as making more mindful food choices.
“We believe all children can be self-sufficient in the kitchen” said Priscilla Cruz, who presented her program based in her childhood experience of being a “picky eater,” her love of teaching and cooking, and her 20-plus years’ experience in education and child care. Cruz said she hopes her program will help children “gain agency in the kitchen and become more adventurous with their eating” as they work together with “friendly and knowledgeable” chef instructors to gain hands-on practice in food preparation. Looking to develop after-school programs as well as weekend and day off options, Cruz put out a call for event spaces — she has a free class coming up at the New Haven Public Library on Dec. 14th — as well as program partnerships. “This is an opportunity to use experiences to help others,” she added.
Other members of the cohort included Tiffany Stewart and Donnell Durden, whose SPACE program aims to offer assistance with digital content creation for other entrepreneurs as well as nonprofits and creatives. “Our focus is on individuals, on those who wouldn’t usually get it,” said Durden. He noted that SPACE has its own physical space confirmed at The District. He played for the crowd a short animated video (watch it here) about what they hoped to accomplish. (And click on the above video to watch a full interview with Steward and Durden this week on WNHH FM.)
The audience remained inquisitive and enthusiastic throughout all six of the presentations, and the sense of local pride and presence was palpable, not just from Lee, Smith and their cohort, but from the room as a whole.
Alina Rodriguez of Alta Mara.
Alina Rodriguez’s Alta Mara promises to provide “custom skincare made simple, sustainable, and affordable” based on her own quest to find what ingredients worked for her and then share her knowledge with the world. Asked where she would make her products, she answered, “New Haven” — and the crowd burst into applause.
When the program was over, the networking and future plans began with people huddled in groups sharing and exchanging information, offering chances to connect, to extend a helping hand, and to pay it forward.