Ganamos, Week One: The Adventure Begins!

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Ganamos, Week One: The Adventure Begins!
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Ganamos, Week One: The Adventure Begins!
by Blase Bova on March 10, 2012
Today’s blog is brought to you by guest blogger Bernadette Konkel, a local
freelance copywriter and SVDP volunteer.
Many of you probably saw the dreams and drama featured in American Idol’s gut-wrenching Hollywood
week and first live performances. Those elimination rounds were the initial steps to greatness for some of
those contestants, but for others . . . not so much. The women of Ganamos have begun their own
competition and journey, but fortunately for them, their first steps to business ownership were more about
learning and discovery than about horrible high notes and tearful exits. The potential rewards of a new
business, however, mean just as much to them as recording contracts to any pop star hopeful.
The Ganamos moms hunting for craft ideas
online - and for some it was their first time on
Google!
For their very first class, the Ganamos Project participants met for English instruction with Reggie, an
entertaining and established volunteer English teacher at SVDP. The goal of the first English class was to
assess the participants’ English speaking skills and discuss the project in greater detail with them. Naturally,
some of the mothers have more advanced English skills than others. These moms will spend their future
Monday classes with Tricia, a business writing instructor at ASU. (Click for a one-minute video highlight
from this class.) They will also act as liaisons between the volunteers and the other group members, helping
each to better understand one another. Despite the challenges and frustrations of learning a new language,
all of the students participated eagerly in the English class, partly because of Reggie’s engaging teaching
style, but mostly because they are incredibly motivated to form successful businesses and communicate well
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with their future customers.
A volunteer serves dinner to some of our
students while they are discussing their
business group
The next night, Tuesday, the Ganamos moms met for their first art facilitation class. Excitedly, the moms
gathered in the computer lab for a lesson in online craft idea harvesting. (Click for a brief video highlight of
this class.) Though some of the women are definitely computer-savvy, others navigated Google for the first
time. With the help of their instructors and a list of helpful websites, the moms discovered fun, marketable
craft projects. They also answered a short questionnaire about themselves and their motivations during
Tuesday’s class. The questionnaires revealed just how determined the mothers are to succeed and why.
Maria, a single mother of two teenage children, joined Ganamos because her family needs the “economic
security for a better future.” Mony, a mother of three, leads a very busy life. “I take care of my children,
look for a job, clean my apartment, cook, do exercises, go to church, and study math,” she says. She found
a creative outlet in “fondant decoration and fruit arrangements” before joining Ganamos, and now she
hopes to use that creativity “to learn different kinds of crafts.” Mony invests her valuable time in Ganamos
because she wants to “get experience,” learn “how to work on the Internet,” and feel good about herself in
the process.
Inspired and full of ideas, the Ganamos participants arrived for their first business development class on
Wednesday. (Click for a brief video highlight from this class) They started off with a skill assessment
exercise that had the women thinking about their creative and technical abilities, as well as the practical
things they would to a get a business started, like their own transportation or a credit card. You could see
the hesitation on some of their faces; only one of the women had ever been asked to assess herself in this
way at work. Each woman had a certain number of checkers to place in several skill categories on a game
sheet. One checker meant she had adequate skill or resources in the category; two meant she was very good
at that skill or she had more than adequate resources. The moms then traded their checkers in for little cards
that corresponded to the categories’ colors.
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Ganamos, Week One: The Adventure Begins!
Group leaders try to balance the skills of their group through
recruitment
Blase then instructed the women who identified themselves as leaders to go to another room where larger
sheets were on a table. Each sheet represented a group that would form its own business. After the first
participants picked their tables, the other women approached the group sheets with their little cards. Blase
instructed them to balance out the sheets with their skills. For example, a mom could go to a group that
really needed her creative expertise instead of lending creative skills to a group that already had many
creative members. The room buzzed with friendly conversation and activity, and in very little time, the
quick and attentive women formed their groups with only a few doubts here and there.
By the end of week one, our future entrepreneurs switched from an individual identity to a group identity.
Their excitement and enthusiasm are evident, but many questions hang in the air: How well will these
women work together? Whose ideas will come to fruition as a product to sell on etsy.com? Who will remain
to the end, and how many will bow out, if any?
Danielle, the ASU intern behind Ganamos,
plans out a class with Greg, one of our
stupendous volunteers.
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Come back next week to see what triumphs and tribulations week two held for our Ganamos contestants,
and don’t forget to check the SVDP Phoenix Twitter feed, and Facebook page for updates, too! You’ll find
lots of videos about Ganamos on the Ganamos Youtube Playlist.
The Ganamos Project still needs a few more volunteers, especially child caregivers who can arrive at 4 PM
on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to sign in the participants’ children, look after them, and lead
them in fun activities while their mothers are in class. For more information about the program, or if you are
interested in volunteering, please contact SVDP Program Director Blase Bova at bbova@svdp-phx-az.org.
Thanks for reading!
If you want to contribute to The Ganamos Project, we can use your help! You can also contribute to the
women’s scholarships through a secure online form athttps://secure5.extremezone.com/stvdpssl/donate.asp.
Write the word “Ganamos” in the comments so your gift will go entirely to the women’s collective.
If you’d like to be a student in a future series of Ganamos classes, you can add your name to our waiting
list here.
Tagged as: blase bova, business development, charity dining room, crafts, education, esl,
etsy.com, family evening meal, social entrepreneurship, St Vincent de Paul Phoenix, St. Vincent
de Paul, SVdP, vincentian, volunteer, volunteer mentors, volunteering, what volunteering means
to me, why do people volunteer, why is volunteering important
1
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
gate design March 20, 2012 at 4:16 am
Nice Post, Keep it up.
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