Women of Color UNIDAS Hispanic and Latina Community Program

Hispanic and Latina business owners in the United States are starting businesses at an immense pace. As announced at the 2023 WBENC National Conference, WBENC, together with Google and The Pinnacle Group, are proud to provide this dedicated outreach program and community within our ongoing Women of Color program.

UNIDAS means “United” in both Spanish and Portuguese and is intended to bring together powerful Hispanic and Latina business owners, many of which are already active in the WBENC network, in addition to the entire WBENC network that wants to support them and learn from them.

WOC UNIDAS is an outreach and networking program open to all WBEs, Certified and non-certified, and anyone in the WBENC network interested in learning from and supporting Hispanic and Latina WBEs.

WBENC, Google and the Pinnacle Group announce the Women of Color Hispanic and Latina Community Program at the 2023 WBENC National Conference

The WBENC Women of Color (WOC) UNIDAS Program is cultivating a business ecosystem for Hispanic & Latina women of color through four initial program pillars, consistent with the overall WBENC Women of Color program pillars:

• Community Building: WOC is a tight-knit community, sharing resources for accelerating growth, strategizing to overcome problems, and meeting new customers.
• Market Access: WOC identifies and leverages regional network areas that focus on the advancement and development of WOC businesses and connects them to the WOC community.
• Resources: WOC provides support throughout the year with resources in education, support, leadership development, mentorship and provides materials to help strengthen and enhance WOC businesses’ capacity for doing business with corporations.
• Human Capital: WOC empowers and advances women owned businesses by providing education, inspirational speakers, facilitators, consulting, trainings, subject experts, coaches, and more for aspiring WOC leaders. The program also connects women of color entrepreneurs to pipelines of talent and emphasizes the importance of developing their teams as their most valuable asset.
• Innovation: WOC facilitates innovation and growth by building bridges with the next generation of women-led firms and entrepreneurs through partnerships with universities and the WBENC NextGen program.

WBENC launched the WBENC Women of Color Program in 2017 to create an effective and successful business ecosystem designed to engage, advise and drive the growth of women of color women-owned businesses.

Since then, thousands of women entrepreneurs have attended in-person and virtual sessions at WBENC events, designed to address the challenges faced by many women of color business owners and provide resources and programming to address those challenges.

As an outreach and development program, the WBENC Women of Color program is open to all women business owners, including WBENC-Certified Women’s Business Enterprises and those not yet certified.

If you are a female entrepreneur, but not yet certified by WBENC, attending a Women of Color program event is a great way to get a taste of the network.

We also invite all allies of women of color business owners to participate, including Corporate Members, WBEs or other partners.