EMPOWERED WOMEN INTERNATIONAL

MISSION & PROGRAMS

Mission

EWI is an award-winning nonprofit organization that channels the entrepreneurial spirit, the arts and creative talents of immigrant, refugee and low-income women into small businesses to create jobs, opportunity for women, multicultural understanding and a new generation of American leaders and entrepreneurs.

Vision

EWI believes in a world in which low-income, immigrant and refugee women in the United States and around the world are treated with respect and dignity and are valued and rewarded fairly for their skills, talents, and labor. We also believe in the extraordinary power of the arts as a unifying language of communication and multicultural understanding and a vehicle of integration for newcomers.

History

In 2002, Marga Fripp an award-winning journalist and a native of Romania created Empowered Women International (EWI) to give voice to immigrant and refugee women, and marshal their cultural and artistic assets, skills and heritage to generate jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities and help them attain full civic participation in the United States. Read more

Goals

(1) Create economic, market, and career opportunities for low-income, immigrant and refugee women

(2) Raise awareness and increase appreciation for the cultural contributions that immigrant and refugee women, along with their families, make to our country.

Program

EWI accomplishes this by providing mentoring and education that teaches practical workforce readiness skills for the American business culture in the arts and the creative industries. The organization offers a comprehensive model of empowerment, workforce development and self-sufficiency that includes:

• A three-month intensive entrepreneurial training, Entrepreneur Training for Success (ETS) along with ongoing personalized coaching, mentoring, networking and support services;
• A marketplace program that allow ETS graduates to generate income and build a market for their products by selling their work through EWI’s marketplace and partner organizations;
• A multicultural outreach program that presents visual and performing arts events and workshops across the Washington DC area to further provide opportunities for our beneficiaries to connect with, participate, and give back to their communities.

Impact

In 2010, 308 immigrant, refugee and low-income women benefited from our comprehensive training, mentoring and support services. We tripled revenue from $55,000 to $158,000, and partnered with AmeriCorps to bring a full-time staff member in our team. EWI presented six visual and performing art programs and 36 artists markets across the Greater Washington DC area, which earned money for over 50 women artists and creative entrepreneurs, and benefited an audience of approximately 4,000 participants.

Got passion to get involved? Email Marga Fripp at margacfripp@gmail.com