Toronto is an amazing multicultural city which is great for networking and doing business. There are boards of trade, Church groups, Mosque groups, and Synagogue groups, and there is at least one Mosque-Synagogue group I have heard about.
What a wonderful city Toronto is to live and work in.
Typical of Toronto is the YMCA Business Centre in Markham, which is close to my heart and its where I volunteer teaching Success Through Balance. The students reflect the diversity of the city. I have had Moslems, Hindus, Christians, Jews, Atheists, and who knows what in my classes. Young people, old people, university educated, high school drop outs, men, women, married, singles, divorced and even a few ex-cons.
The students at the YMCA Business Centre all have one thing in common – the desire to be successful in business.
They all come together because of two great programs funded by the Ontario government. The Ontario Self Employment Benefits (SEB) Program or Youth Employment Program (YEP) In fact, if you qualify – you can get paid to start a business.
Wow! – Getting paid to Start A Business!!
How major cool is that.
Don’t worry, I am not the only instructor for SEB/YEP. The YMCA brings in accountants, sales and marketing people, bankers, and other successful entrepreneurs to list just a few. Each SEB/YEP member has a coach to help guide the burgeoning entrepreneur to create their business plan.
YMCA is are appreciative of all their volunteers! They had a gala at Royal Ontario Museum for all the volunteers. (If I can brag for a second – I received a mounted Stained Glass picture called the Distinguished Volunteer 2008 award from the Greater Toronto YMCA. I am particularly proud of the award, only 10 people out of the 3,500 volunteers received it.)
Here is some thing of interest to entrepreneurs 18 to 35 years old. The YMCA Business Centre is now a community partner of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). The CYBF makes business loans of up to $15,000 to qualified youth. It’s a great opportunity, learn and develop your business plan through YEP and get the start-up financing from CYBF. I am proud to volunteer as part of the Loan Committee for CYBF at the YMCA Business Centre.
Resources For Action You can find out more about SEB/YEP by calling Vanessa Christodoulous at 905-948-9622 x233. If you know anybody wanting to start their own business, this is the program for them. Tell her you heard about the program from me.
Keyword Related posts:
