Social Justice Entrepreneurship
Running a successful business doesn’t have to mean destroying the environment and exploiting employees. The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is offering a free five-week online workshop on Social Justice Entrepreneurship (SJE) that will teach participants how to earn profits while making positive contributions to the community. At SJE, we believe in 360-degree entrepreneurship which supports the well-being of the entrepreneur, their clients, customers, employees, and the environment from which they hail.
Participants who attend at least three of the first four sessions are eligible to apply to compete for cash prizes in a final pitchfest. Last year’s pilot program was a resounding success, and we look forward to supporting more social justice entrepreneurs in our community!
Anyone in our campus, the local, or the global community is welcome to attend.
Congratulations to our SJE PitchFest winners:
CSULB Student: Kayla Bernard- Worktopia
Community Member: Lorise Diamond- Linguistic Communication Development Center
Audience Choice Award: Kiyona Miah- Dear Mama Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga
Session Breakdown
Thinking like a Social Justice Entrepreneur
This session defines social justice entrepreneurship and assists participants in refining their entrepreneurial ideas through an introduction to futures, systems, and design thinking.
Understanding Social Justice Business Models
This session introduces social justice business structures that emphasize worker ownership. It also engages participants in constructing value propositions.
Ensuring Equitable Access
This session explores equitable technologies, ethical production, and access to funding. It also includes a segment on neuroplasticity for entrepreneurs that emphasizes how creating equity for others begins with the self.
Engaging Social Justice Entrepreneurs
This interactive session includes networking with social justice entrepreneurs well as a segment on how to prepare a compelling pitch.
Pitching Social Justice Entrepreneurship
Participants who attend at least three of the first four sessions are eligible to apply to compete in a final pitchfest for cash prizes. Depending on the number of applicants, everyone who applies may not be able to pitch. Selection procedures will be made clear during the earlier sessions.
SJE 2022 Pitch Guidelines | SJE Cooperative Competition Guidelines
In Solidarity With
Nivi Achanta, our 2021 SJE Pitch Fest winner is the founder and CEO of Soapbox Project, an organization helping busy people protect the planet. Soapbox is building a social justice funnel that guides people through a learning journey of bite-sized climate action plans, weekly live events, and a membership community for local action and new friends! With her prize money, Nivi is gearing up to launch Soapbox's first public course on sustainable fashion starting April 6th. This 6-week course provides opportunities to make individual habit changes, practice climate conversations, and create systemic change in the textiles industry. She's partnered with another SJE alumna to make this happen! Support us as we support Nivi.
Featured SJE Businesses:
Gusto Bread is an organic panadería in Long Beach, California, specializing in pan and pan dulce made with 100% masa madre (natural leaven : sourdough starter). Find freshly made loaves, conchas, long breads, nixtamal, polvorones, horchata, café de olla, yerba mate, as well as delicious pantry goods (sardinas, beans), and so much more. We take pride in being rustic yet intentional. We’re not classically trained. We are multicultural peoples with a multitude of backgrounds and aspirations. We love putting our heart + soul into our work, in fact this is where you’ll find us. Here being present to each moment in the evolution of Gusto Bread.
Long Beach Grocery Cooperative is a start-up community-owned and operated grocery cooperative that is committed to providing the Long Beach community with affordable, high-quality, wholesome foods and products for healthy living. We are committed to supporting local agriculture, artisans and fair trade, educating our community on benefits of healthy eating, and using sustainable practices.
Ride On! Bike Shop/Co-Op is a full service worker owned bike shop directly in the heart of Leimert Park. In addition to repairs and sales, Ride On! advocates for transportation equity, improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure in South-West Los Angeles and teaches bicycle safety classes.
SoLA Food Co-op is forming a viable cooperatively organized business. Our goal is to create a source for natural, organic, non-GMO food in South Los Angeles. As a co-op, we are much more than just another natural foods store—we’re actually owned by our local community. Unlike the national chain stores, we exist to serve you, our owners—not a distant corporate board. Because we’re truly local, owning a piece of your co-op is really about owning a piece of your community.
Todo Verde is a woman of color owned food business inspired by Latin American roots and flavors that provides healthy and delicious plant-based culturally relevant dishes to the East Los Angeles community and beyond. Our team is committed to advancing food equity in our neighborhoods, and are working to create lifestyle shifts in healthy eating and self care through awareness and access to naturally good food.
The Tree Yoga Cooperative mission is to be a hub of holistic wellness and community support. We believe that true education is the exploration and expression of the intelligence that resides inside everyone. Our focus is to educate and empower through the transformative practice of Yoga as an accessible, effective tool that allows for living in Liberation.
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