Holly Atjecoutay
Director, Indigenous Entrepreneur Startup Program (IESP), Futurpreneur
Anita Tiessen
CEO, YBI
The Ohpikiwin Series: Journey to financial empowerment — delivered in partnership by Futurpreneur, Youth Business International, and Accenture — empowers young Indigenous entrepreneurs.
Futurpreneur has been fuelling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprise for two decades. “We’re the only national non-profit that provides financing, mentoring, and support tools to aspiring young entrepreneurs nationwide aged 18 to 39,” says Holly Atjecoutay, a First Nations woman and Director of Futurpreneur’s Indigenous Entrepreneur Startup Program (IESP). With up to $60,000 in financing, an expert hand-matched mentor for up to two years, and access to resources, Futurpreneur’s internationally recognized IESP helps young entrepreneurs bring their business plans to life.
Supporting Indigenous youth
Now, Futurpreneur has partnered with Youth Business International (YBI) and Accenture to launch a new informative series dedicated to the financial empowerment of young Indigenous entrepreneurs. The Ohpikiwin Series: Journey to financial empowerment is delivered as part of its IESP and focuses specifically on Indigenous economic inclusion and resilience to assist young Indigenous aspiring entrepreneurs in developing their business financial capacity and entrepreneurship skills.
We’re looking at it from a re-approach of Indigenous knowledge, worldview, teachings, storytelling, and value systems as a foundation point.
Importantly, all workshops are delivered with Indigenous values in mind. “The four-part workshop series focuses on reframing the concepts of credit, financing, budgeting, and goals,” says Atjecoutay. “We’re looking at it from a re-approach of Indigenous knowledge, worldview, teachings, storytelling, and value systems as a foundation point, and linking those concepts and teachings that are so intrinsic to our identities and communities to the westernized systems of credit, financing, and money in general. Our main goal of this partnership is to partake in the shift of understanding that Indigenous prosperity has always been present in Indigenous economies, and that we’re driving toward Indigenous economic resilience through financial resilience.”
The power of partnership
Thanks to the support and collaboration of the three partners, The Ohpikiwin Series has been able to amplify its reach and impact, contributing to the growth of Indigenous economic prosperity through entrepreneurship in Canada.
“Inclusive entrepreneurship is at the forefront of YBI’s mission,” says Anita Tiessen, CEO of YBI. “We’re extremely proud of our first program — The Ohpikiwin Series, Journey to financial empowerment — specifically targeted at supporting young Indigenous entrepreneurs. We’re working closely with our member Futurpreneur and our long-standing partner Accenture on this important program as part of Accenture’s investment in a more equitable future through its Skills to Succeed initiative. We’ll share learnings to drive cross-cutting benefits to our wider network, to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to improve outcomes for Indigenous entrepreneurs.”
To learn more, visit futurpreneur.ca/indigenous.
