WOONSOCKET – A local business development resource organization is now branching out with a new initiative to help provide support to small businesses closer to their homes in northern Rhode Island.
Social Enterprise Greenhouse representatives, along with local government officials, late Thursday launched SEG’s new GROW Woonsocket initiative at the Woonsocket Education Center. SEG says the new program will support small businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs within low-income and distressed communities by connecting them with resources and pathways to achieve prosperity and growth.
Constance Ferber, SEG’s chief impact officer, told Providence Business News had launched similar programming aiding local businesses within Pawtucket and Newport, working outside of Providence’s urban core where SEG is located, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, SEG, Ferber said, took “a big step back” and do more listening in certain communities, including Woonsocket and Pawtucket, as to what help businesses need to succeed.
“We really heard that even though Rhode Island is a small state, a lot of [programs we offer] are centralized in Providence and it’s hard for businesses in other communities to obtain or access those resources,” Ferber said. “A big part of SEG’s mission is to break down barriers to those resources.”
Now, SEG launching GROW Woonsocket, Ferber said, is a “culmination” of what the organization has heard and what it plans to offer in Woonsocket. Ferber also said SEG chose Woonsocket as its first GROW location because the organization “had a lot of traction” offering businesses in the city various support services.
“We thought [Woonsocket] would be a great place to start this journey,” said Ellie Paris-Miranda, SEG’s director of community and economic development. “Our goal is to work with different business owners and organizations here.”
GROW Woonsocket will at first start holding weekly business clinics. Geraldine Barclay-King, who owns Geri’s Bluffing Boutique in the city – and is also SEG’s Woonsocket coordinator – will partner with SEG to hold those clinics, Ferber said. Additionally, the Woonsocket Education Center will partner with SEG to offer workshops and trainings for businesses in the center’s paces. Paris-Miranda said it would be “a dream” for SEG’s GROW Woonsocket program to have a permanent physical location in the city in the future.
Paris-Miranda said GROW Woonsocket’s services being offered to businesses will also include technical assistance, tailored one-on-one consultant services, business education and capital navigation assistance. Paris-Miranda said businesses have challenges accessing capital, so SEG wants to help “break down barriers” regarding that.
“We want to make sure that businesses are aware of different opportunities that they sometimes hear but don’t have the information or access to them,” Paris-Miranda said. Businesses based in neighboring communities, including Cumberland, Lincoln and North Smithfield, will also have access to GROW Woonsocket programming as well, Paris-Miranda said.
While it is unclear what GROW Woonsocket’s operational costs are, Ferber did say grants from the Rhode Island Foundation and the Centreville Bank Charitable Foundation are financially supporting the initiative. SEG will have two full-time staffers, including Paris-Miranda, and a part-time contractor leading the initiative in the city, Ferber said.
In a statement, Interim Mayor Christopher Beauchamp said entrepreneurs within the city “dream of” owning, operating and expanding their small businesses. Helping such businesses “creates jobs and strengthens our local economy,” he said.
Moving forward, Ferber said she hopes GROW Woonsocket will be “extremely valuable” for the business community both within the state’s northernmost city and in northern Rhode Island as a whole. Ferber also said similar GROW programs will launch in Pawtucket and Newport “down the line.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
