Operation HOPE Announced Maui Women’s Business Development MPOWER Program

Operation HOPE announced the launch of the MPOWER Program. The program aims to empower women entrepreneurs to build resilient small businesses in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires. MPOWER is free to participants and kicked off with a Small Business Workshop.

MPOWER program workshop

The organization hosted a workshop to inspire small business owners to craft compelling stories, protect their businesses and pursue growth and scalability. Eligible participants had the opportunity to join the MPOWER Cohort Program. This is an 8-week training series featuring expert guest speakers, support in developing pitch materials, a pitch competition and the chance to be invited to the MPOWER Mastermind Group.

“We’re excited to expand our signature Operation HOPE small business programming to support Maui’s incredible women small business owners, entrepreneurs and aspirants,” said Marlon Trone, Operation HOPE Senior Director of Disaster Operations. “We were first on the ground here, along with our partners at FEMA, American Red Cross and the U.S. Small Business Administration. We recognize that disaster recovery only ends when a thriving economic recovery is fully in place.”

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to “silver rights.” The mission is to make free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals. The organization directed more than $4.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. HOPE Inside received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine. For more information: OperationHOPE.org.