Cook-Gaines, the director of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Washington, D.C. Women’s Business Center, was recently named a Champion of Change by the White House.
How long have you been doing this kind of work?
I worked for the Department of Small and Local Business Development with the D.C. government, so I had already been in the business development world. I was just blessed this time to have the opportunity to work with women entrepreneurs. We’ve come up with ways to create a space with women entrepreneurs to help them develop and grow their business.
What’s different about your network?
For us, it really is that a women’s business center is built around the life of a woman. We provide, for example, family-friendly networking events. You don’t have to be at a lounge at 8 p.m. at night. You can be somewhere where you can bring your kids. We provide training in the evenings and on the weekends to fit a woman’s schedule. We even supply snacks and food around dinner time and childcare during our evening classes.
Can you give an example of someone in the District you’ve helped?
There was an IT staffing firm that … came to us for business plan assistance. From there, we provided counseling for her and connected her to our community development fund to allow her to secure a major contract with a firm, Lockheed Martin. So because of our business planning, our access to capital and our counseling, she was able to start and exponentially grow the business within her first year.
How many businesses have you helped so far?
Last year there were 11 new businesses created and 53 jobs created, so that means employees hired. There are people who are eating because these women-owned businesses are succeeding.
