About Us
Success Stories
Lissa
For more than 30 years, Lissa has been working with children and adults with learning challenges. She loved what she was doing, but she had a dream to own her own business. Her business idea was to develop a curriculum that would be simple and fun for children who had severe learning challenges. Her business would deliver workshops to teachers, parents and others who can then assist individuals with learning challenges. Amongst all these great ideas her biggest challenge was financial. Being a single parent of two children and the sole provider in the family, starting a business was a brave road to choose. “As far as my project goes I had lots of participant profile expertise; however I absolutely had no business background.”
Lissa was able to start her curriculum development over the summer. As the curriculum was evolving, however, she discovered that it would take much longer than she had originally thought. Lissa was also getting worried, “I was looking for a job as I was feeling quite desperate and it wasn’t getting off the ground as fast as I was hoping it would.” Lissa found out about MCC Employment Development in Calgary (funded by Canadian Women’s Foundation’s economic development fund) while looking in the classified ads. She applied and was soon enrolled.
This free nine-month evening program involves 12 weeks of classroom instruction with a facilitator and volunteers, followed by a one-on-one business coaching phase. The program concludes with participants expected to complete a business plan and launch their business. Throughout the program, Lissa learned the requisite skills to start her own business. Her financial anxieties were overcome by the confidence she gained through knowledge and support from the program. She completed her curriculum manual and is now successfully delivering workshops. She is self-employed, makes her own decisions and, above all, does what she loves. According to Lissa, “What I learned about myself is that I always knew that I had a gift in my little area of special education. What was quite surprising to me was that I did have an ability to learn the business side of it. I never thought of myself as a business type person because I am quite creative, and have never had an interest in focusing on anything that might have to do with business. But as it turns out, I love the marketing part and I feel confident.”
And her advice to current and prospective students? “Take full advantage of everything MCC Employment Development has to offer if you are serious and passionate about starting your own business. You will succeed if you go through this program. You will get tremendous support from the business coaches and the life coaches, and you will benefit from the emotional support of the group. This is an absolute winning combination.”
Tinyan
Tinyan Otuomagie knew she wanted to help other women who had been through challenging and difficult experiences, as she had, but just didn’t know exactly how she was going to do it.
A career counselor suggested the field of life skills coaching and Tinyan loved the idea. She enrolled at George Brown College in Toronto to certify as a life skills coach and learned how to start and manage her own business by enrolling at the Community Microskills Development Centre (funded by Canadian Women’s Foundation’s economic development fund).
After successfully running her own business as a life skills coach and facilitator, in May of 2004 Tinyan received a female entrepreneur of the year award from the Community Microskills Development Centre, after which she became a sought after professional speaker, facilitator, and consultant (learn about Tinyan’s own business at www.stepupcoaching.com).
She continued her education with a degree in Women’s Studies and International Development Studies and is very active within the women’s movement through volunteer work with organizations like the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), and through mentoring women who have been abused at Community Microskills Development Centre. Tinyan is also currently working with Toronto Community Housing on their initiative to create economic opportunities for youth in the city, and with women from the Somali community, teaching them the skills needed to become successful business women.
Tinyan uses her experiences to inform, inspire and ultimately, improve the lives of women and youth. She remains at the forefront of issues that affect the lives of women and youth in the city and she is a voice for many of them. Tinyan is truly a woman of worth.