Grooming Entrepreneurs
It’s National City’s version of a startup incubator.
The Southwestern College campus in National City’s downtown is in its third year of finding potential entrepreneurs and putting them through a 14-week training program that sets them on their way to establishing microbusinesses.
The businesses: child care centers in the homes of the trainees. The entrepreneurs: Spanish-speaking women in National City and surrounding areas.
Southwestern launched the Microenterprise Family Childcare Program with two purposes. National City has identified a dearth of child care as a problem for the city’s residents. In addition, the program aims to boost the local economy by helping Spanish-speaking women, who are often not employed outside the home or are working in low-wage jobs, to earn more money.
Much of the program is covered by a three-year, $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
About 120 people have been through the program. Many have received their license to run a child care center, but few have achieved what Leticia Marquez has. She runs Babyland Family Child Care in her home on J Avenue, where she takes care of eight children.
Photo by Nelvin C. Cepeda.
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