365 North Pleasant StAmherst, MA01002
United States
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Organization Information
Mission Statement
We empower families to lift themselves from poverty trough social business, community development and advocacy. Our focus are the families living in the slums of the Caribbean.
WE ENGAGE - We create spaces where the community comes together to talk about their aspirations and problems. We then all together think of solutions. When a good idea strikes, everyone’s invested, and the community becomes the driving force in making the solution a reality.
WE KICKSTART - Acting as a catalyst, we kickstart social businesses in the community with the main purpose of creating good jobs, building capital and making products people from poor communities need.
WE CONNECT - We know poverty cannot be eradicated by a single organization. We engage churches, universities, business, NGOs, donors and the public sector to contribute their expertise to our programs.
Description
Upward Ventures is a nonprofit organization that works to eradicate extreme poverty working with communities to kickstart businesses that provide jobs, empowerment and dignity to people that need them the most.
We go after the roots of poverty by creating meaningful employment for poor families, kickstarting businesses that provide jobs - good jobs so people of the community can support their families. Our businesses create products that not only compete and thrive in the open market but also that poor communities can use to improve their quality of life. We hire mainly women, as we know they carry most of the burden of their family’s wellbeing and are more likely to make the investments their children need.
As our first venture, we are launching a soap factory in Las Malvinas, Santo Domingo, to produce handcrafted high quality soap for several customer segments. The factory will begin as a small production unit employing local women to make and distribute the soap.
Our products will be handcrafted soaps made using the islands’ showcase ingredients: cacao, cuava and rum; fruits such as mango, coconut and passion fruit; herbs grown locally such as lavender, peppermint and aloe. Our soap will tell the story of the women making it and give our corporate clients the opportunity to show their responsible procurement practices.
