Connecting northern women

Overcoming barriers to accessing business advice and resources is the goal of a new website for enterprising women from rural and remote communities.
The www.enterprisingwomen.ca website was unveiled June 14 at the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise office in Thunder Bay, with Equay-wuk’s Darlene Angeconeb listed as a mentor along with Lake Helen’s Cindy Crowe and Seine River’s Sandi Boucher.
Crowe owns Cindy Crowe Consulting and Boucher owns beno bimahdizewin consulting group.
Equay-wuk is collaborating with PARO to deliver a series of leadership workshops during July in Wabigoon Lake, Eagle Lake, Lac Seul, Wabauskang and Red Lake.
“They’re going to be talking about getting women into business, running small businesses and putting other information about how they can assist women running small businesses,” Angeconeb said. “For our part I will be talking about women and leadership, role models and mentoring.”
The Red Lake leadership training workshop is scheduled for July 12-14.
“Enterprising women are pursuing their dreams across the North, yet geography and resources have previously restricted them from achieving their potential,” said Rosalind Lockyer, PARO’s executive director. “This new website will provide that missing link. Some of the region’s most enterprising women are a part of this new network and will act as mentors to women looking for support or assistance.”
Lockyer said the mentors and resources will be accessible online free of charge.
Boucher praised the support and encouragement she received from PARO when she was starting up her own business.
“When I walked through those doors two short years ago, I had no idea of the network, the support, the friendship that was waiting for me,” Boucher said. “Here at PARO I found support and encouragement. PARO co-hosted my book warming, they introduced me to networks to help me grow my business.”
Funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the new website also includes a question and answer forum where women can put their questions to a panel of experts, success stories about enterprising women, commentary on women’s issues and entrepreneur videos.