Support beyond Entrepreneurship

Women Palante is continue working to impact latina women to improve their economic development and wellness. We recently implemented: Wellness and Financial Series. This program were created by Women Palante Foundation with the vision of encouraging all women, especially Latina women, to find personal empowerment and professional and lifelong success for themselves and generations to follow, while improving their physical, mental and financial health.

Physical well-being

In physical wellness we focused on health promotion and disease prevention, seeking to develop healthy habits that would allow participants to positively impact their bodies in the short and long term. We centered on nutrition, physical activity, and improvement of sleep quality. We developed a Wellness Challenge as a fun addition to the program aimed to increase user engagement, encouraging positive lifestyle behaviors through healthy competition. During this challenge participants:

Tracked the number of days they walked and exercised, setting a total of steps, minutes, and even distance.

Started drinking water with lime in the morning before breakfast and consume eight or more eight-ounce glasses of water per day.

Track good night’s sleep and time.

Started practicing Yoga at home

Created an Emotional Diary

Started weekly meditation

A group chat was created to maintain contact with the participants during the program, resolve doubts and keep track of their process. However, over time it became a space for integration, seeing their peers taking on new challenges improved their adherence and motivation. 

The Wellness Challenge motivated 88.9% of the participants to make healthy changes in their routines.

70,4% of the participants think their sleep habits have improved.

92,6% of the participants considered acquiring useful tools to change their diet in a healthy way.

Based on the knowledge acquired in class, 44.6 % of the participants changed their minds and understood that it is not expensive to achieve a balanced diet.

81.5 % of the participants are able to understand the information on the nutrition label on food packages.

The physical wellness challenge section was very well received and there was active participation through the group chat2 and during the classes throughout the program.

Mental Well-being

The mental health program was aimed at developing a greater awareness of themselves, their emotions, thoughts, and feelings, allowing them to improve their self-esteem, relationships with others and to seek help in a timely manner in case of need. Considering that one of the most common problems among women is sexual and domestic violence and its devastating repercussions, this issue was addressed with a preventive approach, empowering them in their role of educating their children, accompanying their partners, and identifying available help routes. To address mental health needs, our counselor Olga Morelos received 6 cases and continued giving support throughout the program to one student.

85.2% of the participants improved their perception of themselves, and their relationship with their bodies, emotions, and thoughts.

96.3% of the participants believe that they are now able to more easily identify the symptoms of the most frequent pathologies in mental health, such as anxiety and depression.

With the intention of educating them about the available routes of help 2 field trips were made according to the work schedule of the participants.

The topics addressed during those visits were: 

Sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Child and Adolescence protection services.

Behavioral Health/Substance Abuse.

Financial Assistance. Homelessness.

96.3 % of the participants considered beneficial learning and visiting the Department of Health and Human Services Crisis Center at 1301 Piccard Drive in Rockville. Two participants commented that they accessed the Crisis Center's services.

Financial Literacy

The participants showed a greater awareness of the importance of ensuring they are financially literate as a state of well-being in which they can manage their bills and expenses, pay debts although unexpected financial emergencies, and plan for the long term.

100% of the students identified and prioritized personal financial needs and practiced setting up and maintaining a personal budget.

96,3% of the participants learned how small outlays can end up weighing down their finances more than they realize. Some of the students were surprised at the savings they could make by reducing those micro-expenses. Rethinking their consumption habits and reducing their microexpenses led them to increase their input in the saving challenge.

100% of the participants understood the difference between saving and investing.

98% of the participants did the money-saving challenge as a budgeting activity to encourage them to achieve a certain financial goal in a creative way. Participants were helped to keep track of their spending and set small achievable goals. 99% of the participants that saved, reach the minimum amount which was $250.

96.3% of the participants learned how to find out about their credit scores. They also learned how to build credit with ITIN3 numbers and how to use rent payments to improve their credit scores. Reporting to the Credit Bureau a positive rental payment history helps them to establish or build a credit history through timely rental payments.

Yoga Classes:

The yoga series and curriculum was developed keeping in mind the values that we wanted the women to learn and embody. For example, the classes were themed based on values such as compassion, empathy, grounding, strength, energy, resilience, flexibility, balance, and gratitude. Theming the classes based on these values allowed the women to connect with the practice in an intentional way and reinforced the teachings that they were learning in the mental health and well-being classes that they were receiving. The yoga classes were taught by two teachers that both integrated different styles of teaching to give the women an opportunity to learn different approaches. The women learned basic postures that they were able to easily integrate at home, even with their children, setting an example for them in their own well-being journey.

81,5% of the participants said that the knowledge gained from practicing Yoga has been beneficial in their life.

92.3% of the participants started to integrate Yoga into their daily routine.

Community Building

We are proud of the impact of the program evidenced by the fact that 96,3% of participants felt very supported and welcomed by the Women Palante team.

SUCCESS STORIES:

Gladys: One of the most driven participants in all the classes and challenges. She was a role model for her classmates, daily she posted on WhatsApp group chat photos, and motivational messages setting an example. She incorporated yoga into her daily routine. Gladys brought her daughter to the program so they both were able to learn and share their experiences. As a result, she mentioned that her relationship with her daughter improved as they would take walks together. It was a transgenerational impact.

Yansi: participated in the program during her pregnancy and showed her willingness to grow despite feeling shy at first. Although she was not sure about engaging initially, she gave yoga a try and found that the practice was very helpful for her because it eased the tension in her body. We recommended prenatal yoga for her which she incorporated and was able to do at home on her own time. Yansi reported liking the practice and the breathing techniques to help her prepare for birth.

Ana was inspired to perform a breast selfexamination where she found a mass in her breast, which is currently in the process of diagnosis and follow-up. Ana emphasizes that thanks to the information provided in the physical health class she was able to start this process on time. Additionally, Ana applied for a loan with Life Asset to invest in her manicure business idea.

Angela lost her job during the time she was participating in the Series and her biggest concern was to losing her insurance, but thanks to the Health Insurance Marketplace class and the guidance she had, Angela was able to find a plan that fit her actual economic situation. She also was able to take the chromosome test for adult Karyotype to prove before the immigration authorities her assigned sex at birth, so she can keep her name, Angela in all of her documentation.

Elisabeth shares that she came to Montgomery County about 5 years ago and during this time she had not found a space that allowed her to feel part of something, so she felt lonely and unmotivated. But, thanks to the Wellness and Personal Finance Series she found a place where she felt valuable, grateful to learn, improved her independence and dared to go beyond the limits she was used to.

Yessica: Thanks to the community connections Yessica’s husband had a job opportunity with one of our sponsor Soft Stuff. Her husband was helped to apply for the Non-CDL Delivery Driver position. It brought economic stability to her family. 

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

The attendance record of the 28 women that completed the program was 99%. Maintaining regular attendance and punctuality was a huge accomplishment for the program because it showed the motivation and commitment on the part of the participants.

The participants voluntarily signed up for extra hours to delve into nutritional conversations for effective tips and tools via zoom every Tuesday, for four weeks. The conversations were led by Ely Johnson, a nutritional counselor.

2300 dollars in prizes were awarded .

88% of the participants were Extremely Satisfied with the investment that Maspanadas made in their education.

PROCLAMATION: The County Council of Montgomery County, Maryland, made a Proclamation that recognizes the substantial contribution of Women Palante as an important pillar in Montgomery County. The recognition was delivered during the graduation ceremony of the Series by Andrew Friedson, Council Vice-President and Laurie-Anne Sayles, Councilwoman.

Links:

• ABC Press Release
• Local Newspaper in MD