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Midwest Mujeres is on fire! We have three online classes by #wisconsin women of color teaching other Wisconsin women how to build their online presence through learning Canva, Video Storytelling, and keeping healthy during stressful times. Meet our next three Mujeres, all three are members of Midwest Mujeres, and some are alumni of our Be Bold program!!! ***Supported by UW Health and United Way of Dane County Micro Investment Grant.*** August 16 and 23rd, Tuesdays from 7-8 PM, Yaya of Infinite Designs in Milwaukee, WI, will teach our women and you! (Si Tu!) best practices for using Cava 101 and 102 classes! Have you ever wondered how I can create a fun picture or story using Canva? Join us for this informative class! Yajaira Liz Davila is the CEO and Graphic designer of Yayas Infinite Designs. As a full-time stay-at-home mom, she started her business to help her family financially and help other people with their businesses by providing them with services that will help their businesses grow. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in art from Alverno College and freelanced for several nonprofits and solopreneurs! Now, she is taking the time to help other people through the art of graphic design! https://www.instagram.com/yayasinfinitedesigns/ Sign up here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvce6pqz8uG9HD2d2jVFRwKJVCySnfY5gu September (my baby's birth month and every kid in Wisco! You do the math!:) 6th Tuesday from 7-8 PM (notice the pattern!) The Art of Video Storytelling with Jamie Perez In the crowded internet world, it seems daunting and impossible to stand out. Especially for startups and solopreneurs, how do you get noticed? Your services, products, and skills are not necessarily unique. But your story is. The art of video storytelling helps nonprofits and for-profits share their stories and allows people to understand why they should care about YOU and your business. Local videographer and owner of Beyond Words Productions, Jamie Perez, will lead a workshop on the value of video for your organization. Jamie Perez is a videographer and storyteller at heart. After six years as a TV News reporter, she decided to leave the career she thought she would be in forever. While she could leave news behind, she could not leave storytelling behind. Jamie is driven by the emotional storytelling and passionate about creating empathy through videos. Jamie has helped people raise hundreds of thousands of dollars through video and has helped businesses hire and retain employees in a difficult employment market. When she doesn't have a camera in her hands, you can find her reading, writing, singing, crafting, cooking, hiking, traveling, or teaching pole dancing classes on the side. www.beyondwordsproductions.com Tuesday, Sept. 6th at 7-8 PM Sign up here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdO2rrD8sHtywaq5ctXjN_XXbD7jgk_XO Last but not least, to wrap up our summer classes with some wellness and real health talk! The four secrets to staying healthy, even when you're busy, with Michelle Rosko Join us to discover the Four Secrets to Stay Healthy, Be Consistent in Your Fitness, & Care for Your Body---So You Can Look & Feel Your Absolute Best! (Even if you’re going through big life changes, & without spending hours in a gym or following restrictive diets) Michelle Rosko went from a perfectionist with disordered eating to a joyful fitness coach empowering women to live the happy & healthy lives they desire & deserve! They work online with women around the world. Michelle specializes in helping women who struggle with inconsistency in their health, like stopping and going to workout programs, emotional eating, or yo-yo dieting, to make lasting, sustainable changes. You can find her at mlrosko.com or on IG at michellelynnrosko Sign-up for the four secrets to staying healthy Tuesday, Sept 13th at 7 PM: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfuyvqD0pH9N-wX4noHXBlONX4jAIGxpV

We are hosting our last in-person event for the year! We are meeting at the new city of Madison fleet building. The city has generously given us access to this building. There will be childcare available. We will have food! The workshop is making a craft that will attract Money! Crafting is great stress relief! Join us for community and fellowship! Date: Saturday, November 12th Time: 12-2:30 PM Location: 4151 Nakoosa Trail (across from Wal-Mart East) Childcare: Will be provided! Link to sign up: https://bit.ly/moneycrafts We are so happy to have Marcela Kyngesburye, a local advocate of the Rape Crisis and curandera. Her titles include but are not limited to, Transformational Coach/Healer/Chemical Engineer/Fiber Artist/Author/Waldorf Teacher/Mindfulness Facilitator/Zen Leader, and Conscious Creator. Agenda: 12:05 PM Welcome and break to visit vendors. 10 minutes 12:20 PM Rejoin and do the Ice Breaker for 10 minutes 12:35 Welcome Back! What did you say or learn that inspired you? 12:45 PM Budgeting and challenges with Maria Lopez Marquez (Summit Credit Union) 1:05 PM Is the Salad bar and subs for kids. Water and other things will be provided. 1:35 PM Call back people to the room. Kids go back to the childcare area. Heidi will talk about Vagina monologues recruitment. 1:40 PM Movement+Meditation+Manifestation discussion with Marcela Kyngesburye! 2:10 PM we will have kids come in, and we co-share what they made and what we made. Non-binary Latine Femmes are welcome. LGBTQ+, Black, Asian, indigenous, and White Ally women are welcome. Accommodations can be offered, but please email us to check if we have them for you: info@midwestmujeres.com We are so grateful for the generous support of Summit Credit Union! Check out their upcoming financial educational events! Summit Credit Union is a member-owned financial cooperative that is making entire communities better with our focus on empowering women to build financial security and avoid poverty in retirement. This includes a deep-rooted commitment to financial education for greater overall wellness and our efforts as the #1 Small Business Administration (SBA) Lender among credit unions and #1 Mortgage Lender in Wisconsin to help our members and women, specifically, build wealth through owning homes and businesses.

Chingona has been redefined as someone intelligent, fearless, and someone who gets things done! Are you ready? You are perfect for our program because you have overcome many obstacles. You've worked hard to achieve your career goals. BUT-- Why is your career growth difficult or elusive? Whether you're early in your career or a C-level executive, our Chingona Leadership Program will teach you how to: Embrace your journey and career story Redefine professionalism Create a LinkedIn profile that attracts opportunities Maximize your career portfolio Reframe networking Leadership for this program means we want to be the best version of our future. Not perfection, but defined by our confidence and ganas or desire to grow. PROGRAM topics & dates Thursday, Nov 10th: 5 Tips to be Chingona on LinkedIn Thursday, Nov 17th: How to Network Like a Comadre Thursday, Dec 1st: Create & Promote Your Career Portfolio Like a Chingona Thursday, Dec 8th: Participant Presentations * Sessions will be on Thursdays from 7 PM - 8:30 PM Central Time Email us (info@midwestmujeres) if you want a stipend to attend the course. Link to register: https://bit.ly/chingonalp Social impact begins with innovation, and we are grateful for the generous sponsorship and support that inspire us. Thankful for the opportunity to collaborate with Aspira Consulting. Oscar and Angelica for believing in the dream of bringing its signature Chingona Leadership Program to the Midwest. Gracias a American Family, The Office of Social and Community Impact. And thank you to our early supporters at Park Bank and Madison College. Without your commitment to community development, organizations like Midwest Mujeres would be unable to continue. We are so happy that a couple of our sponsors will send us representatives to be new connectors for our cohort! Together we are breaking the isolation of Latinas living in the Midwest!

Chingona became a popular term in 2017 when a woman in California decided to retake the work and make handbags that went viral! Throughout Latin America and in many Latinx communities in the United States, the word chingona had negative connotations. But that all changed when a Latina DYI creator, Melina Duarte, decided to take back the word and define it on handbags. The movement caught on fire online, and we all began calling each other Chingonas! Chingona means a woman who is intelligent, fearless, and can get things done! The word has historically been used to describe women who are “too aggressive,” while the masculine version of “chingon” is used to compliment men. Mujeres is now taking the word to be a universal way of becoming the best version of who you are, not discounting your roots, history, and culture! Join the movement! In fact, at Midwest Mujeres, we have partnered with Aspira Consulting to bring you a Chingona Leadership Program that will introduce you to ways to reach your dreams! This four-week class will cover how you can use your chingona skills of being intelligent, fearless, and a person who can get things done! You have done everything for yourself, and we know it's hard to ask for help. Your time is super limited, but your dreams aren't! We can help. Our course is interactive and designed to engage your culture and strengths that people can't see in a resume or an interview, so how can you show them? We will teach you how! You've worked hard to achieve your career goals. But why is your career growth difficult or elusive? We can help you tell your story! PROGRAM topics & dates *Sessions will be on Thursdays from 7 PM - 8:30 PM Central Time Nov 10: 5 Tips to be Chingona on LinkedIn Nov 17: How to Network Like a Comadre Dec 1: Create & Promote Your Career Portfolio Like a Chingona Dec 8: Participant Presentations Sign up: https://bit.ly/chingonalp

Hello, My name is Araceli Esparza; I’m the founder of a new organization called Midwest Mujeres. Our mission is to reduce income inequalities for women. We are a mentorship program that connects, guides, and mentors Latinas and other Black and Brown women on business opportunities, online education, and presentation skills. Midwest Mujeres Collective program is a mentorship program that teaches Latinas and other women self-empowerment storytelling skills and how they can create or expand their platform and use social marketing for social issues like health, wellness, career development, domestic violence, and other social justice issues. I often joke with people: what are the two things you fear the most? Death and public speaking are typically the answers. We believe that by telling your own story, you can control your narrative and reach for your dreams of a new career, business, or endeavor. We are here to encourage women of color to tell their stories. We provide content creation training and online education with teachers and speakers that look like our audience. We are intentional in curating our courses and do this in an online environment that is culturally welcoming for Black and Latina women. We recently received the United Way micro-investment grant! This was a special distinction because, as a new Latina lead organization, we are often not afforded the co-signing from established organizations. We are here to disrupt online education and create an intentional online space for Latinas, LGBTQ+femmes, and Black and white ally women. Considering the recent supreme court ruling and the devasting effects on women’s right to choose, we need all white women to stand up and be intentional in supporting our work and purpose. Together we can close the wage gap for Latinas and Black women and help our most vulnerable population receive valuable career-enhancing and business-generating resources. The more we teach Latinas and Black women from the midwest to tell their stories online, the more we can grow as a region economically. We can all learn and gain a fresh perspective, a new mentor, and a new business. We know that with these skills Black and Latina women will be able to close the wage gap. We are makers of a new movement led by Latinas and all women. We are pushing back on the typical midwestern women troupe, taking up new issues, and defining our narratives.

Thank you to Giovanni, our resident photographer! And to our major sponsors like Madison College, Private grant, Alvarado Realty, Immigrant Finance, The Melanin Project, WWBIC, The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation, El Primo Tacos Sun Prairie, Brittney Hayes, Paradise Ice Cream, Roots4Change, Wisconsin Bank & Trust, Katharisma Cleaning, Madison Studio 11, Latino Chamber of Commerce, American Family Insurance with Carlos Chacon, and Axios Life Coaching. And you, our followers, members, and supporters, we couldn't do this without you! Without your support this would not be possible! Click over to see all of our pictures! https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzWcxf

Join us on Friday, June 3rd, in Madison, Wisconsin, for another Yo Quiero Dinero event! Midwest Mujeres welcomes first-generation immigrants, Spanish speakers, parents, entrepreneurs, healers, community grandmothers, Movement Makers, hustlers, and Dreamers to learn how to grow and maintain your wealth. “We want our event to be a place of connection for Latina/Black/Indigenous/Asian/LGBTQ/Immigrant and white women to explore their dreams with career coaches and content developers who represent their background and lifestyle and share their ambition to close the wage gap for all women,” says founder Esparza. Robbi Dominguez from Madison Studio 11 will be there presenting! Thanks, Robbi, for this shout-out! Robbi is an example of the growth members gains in our collective! We have done interviews and coached them on public speaking, and with that, Robbi has soared in their content development which has gained her more visibility online and new clients! Our members gain confidence to use the power of the internet to help them communicate their professional experience and obtain higher-paying jobs or new audiences for their business. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yo-quiero-dinero-mujeres-for-wealth-wellness-networking-event-tickets-3

Hola, happy volunteer appreciation week! As we grow our network, I do not want to lose sight of our volunteers. If it weren't for our volunteers, we wouldn't have been able to grow our efforts to build this digital network for Midwest Mujeres, a multicultural group of women from different backgrounds who are united to closing the wage gap. Left to Right: Shadayra Kilfoy Flores, local Activist, and Organizer; Lucero Steele, MS MFT, Marce Ixta Olascuaga, Younique Beauty Consultant; and Veronica Figueroa Velez, Executive Director of Dane Arts Mural Arts. We love that our volunteers are growing their networks! Lucero recently started her private practice. www.mmhservices.net, we caught up with her and asked her what she enjoyed about volunteering with us! "I’ve had the pleasure of working with Midwest Mujeres in two different capacities. One of the most rewarding ones was volunteering on their Facebook page by providing mental health tips on Fridays both in English and Spanish. In addition, I have also done a podcast and Facebook live show discussing different subjects that are important and very valuable to myself and others. It has been a pleasure working with Midwest Mujeres!"

We have the Pan Dulce (Mexican Sweetbread) and the ganas (deep passion) to do this Bilingual event! ​ ~Habrá intérpretes para hispanohablantes~ Cultura cura! Culture heals! Join us for this interactive event of culture, money talk, curandera, Mujeres, and high-impact everyday women coming together! ​ And YES, you can come if you don't speak Spanish! Make new friends have some food, and childcare will be provided for ages 4-10 years old. What is the thing that brings us together? Culture! ​ Our speaker Afra Smith is a powerhouse presenter; she speaks on the chains of generational trauma of money and finance for women. Adina Appelbaum, co-creator of Immigrant Finance, is a national speaker on investing as an undocumented person. Get moving with Robbi Dominguez from Studio 11! ​Black, Latinas, and all women continue to make less than men in the job market and business growth. Midwest Mujeres' mission is to break the isolation of living in the Midwest and close the wage gap!

Midwest Mujeres (Midwest Women) is a mentoring collective helping to raise social capital for grassroots organizations. We help high-impact multicultural women expand their platforms. Midwest Mujeres helps Latinas and women expand their network and grow their businesses or professional knowledge while helping national brands and nonprofit organizations reach their target audience. The how we do what we do As a networking collective, we curate and connect people through our signature workshops and provide opportunities that expand their platform. We ultimately want to connect mentees and mentors thru a month-long mentorship that will create short and attainable goals to increase their network or professional knowledge and build their digital footprint, resumes, virtual workshop facilitation, content creation, and networking. The why we started what we did We created Midwest Mujeres to help Latinas and all women expand their networks and grow their businesses or professional knowledge. We focus on networking, mentoring, marketing, and building nonprofit organizations serving health, wellness, the arts, consultant/freelance work, and social justice issues. I say we because I am not alone, I have worked with several project assistants, board ambassadors, and community partners to grow this corner of Wisconsin online. Where women of all classes and backgrounds living in the Midwest have a passion for helping people with a social justice corazón!

Our location was special, with huge windows, a nice lounge area, and breakout rooms. MyArts building is a beautiful example of when the artist and our community are put into the center of the design. Our collective member and business owner, Yazmin Sulem Lopez of Kashima cleaning, hosted our breakfast. Then we were blessed by having interpreters from the interpreters' coop, Latino Chamber, WWIBC, Roots4Change, and part of the leadership of Urban Triage, along with so many women entrepreneurs who got to network and get to know new faces! Robbi Dominguez from Madison Studio 11 talked about commitment and change and what it takes to realize our goals. We then had Afra Smith of The Melanin Project and Adina Appelbaum from Immigrant Finance. Coming from the east coast, Adina had a couple of travel challenges. While she gave her talk, her voice filled with pride and emotion as she realized this travel helped her affirm her mission to help empower others to become financially sound! Then we had catered lunch by Primos Restaurant, which is co-owned by Adrianna. Yazmin, Shadayra, and Lisset, our Be Bold graduates, assisted with placing the food! Thank you, ladies! Thank you so much to our sponsors, supporters, and attendees!!

In March 2022, Midwest Mujeres had a milestone. We graduated our first cohort of Be Bold women. Over 30 Mujeres applied Twenty-three received either partial or full fellowship stipends. This dream began in 2020 at a local pitch session. We dared to dream about a future for Midwest Mujeres. We dreamed of a future that was both rewarding and educational for women of color, specifically low-income women. We dreamed of women who were out of the workforce or in careers and wanted to change or upgrade their job would take this course and find value. Women who wanted to hone their speaking skills, do online presentations, and participate in real conversations about finances and budgeting. In partnership with our online community, we conducted a five-week series where we invited speakers from across the nation. We talked about cash-day pay loans, and the cultural divide in generational wealth growth. We learned how to tell our stories and how to listen to others navigating being a woman of color business owner and making an online presence. Women from all backgrounds came to learn new skills: to grow their online presence, and they wanted to learn from other women who are micro-influencers. Over 60% of the women wanted to learn how to pitch their business and gain the skills to be on a panel as a speaker or thought leader. 75% of all applicants need childcare to attend our meetings. We provided them with a $100 stipend. This is a big opportunity to tap into online work resources. When women can create multiple income streams from their homes, they need a community. Midwest Mujeres is that community. Next cohort: How to be Chingona on LinkedIn. Thank you to our funders, supporters, cheerleaders: Shadayra Kilfoy-Flores, Dulce (Madison College, LessWork Media, Iris Design, The Rich Girl Network, Doyenne Madison, and Roots for Change, and Afra Smith of the Melanin Project.