FINNovation Fellow Graduation- Celebrating Social Entrepreneurs
FINNovation Fellows Cohort 3
Meet Cohort 3 FINNovation Fellows
(Reposted from the FINNovation Lab; Cohort 3 (2020-2021))
The FINNOVATION Fellowship is an immersive, nine-month program that prepares driven changemakers to lead and launch impactful social enterprises. Since this cohort began their fellowship in September 2020, they have gone through the process of problem definition, customer and industry research, prototyping, impact measurement, business plan writing, leadership development and more, all while being completely virtual. It has been wonderful to see how their social enterprise ideas have progressed in spite of such a challenging past nine months.
The final event was moderated by Tane Danger, Director of the Westminster Town Hall Forum and founder of the Theater of Public Policy, and featured video presentations and discussion with each of the Cohort 3 Fellows:
Michelle Abdon - ArtWell
Marlee Dorsey - Reviving Roots Therapy & Wellness
Valerie Fleurantin - VF Health Fitness Solutions
Naomi Ko - First In
Julian Korger - Blue Collar Supper Club
Brook LaFloe - Niniijaanis One of Ones
Temi Ogunrinde - Homalie
Mary Taris - Strive Community Publishing
Dane Verret - Strong Medicine
View the graduation keychains- an offering from our founder Brook LaFloe to all other fellows. “An earned gift for all the immeasurable knowledge we shared during our time together.”
Reflections from our Founding Fellow: Brook LaFloe
The FINNovation Fellowship was my first deep dive into the world of business. I had mostly non-profit and classroom experience up until then. I LEARNED a ton! From profit margins, to intellectual property, marketing, pitching, financial predictions and more. I learned about every aspect of a business and got to apply what I was learning directly into my business plan and operations. One of my greatest learnings was that what I was doing at Niniijaanis One of Ones wasn’t working as a financial model. I learned that what I was self funding wasn’t going to be a sustainable business model. I had to pivot. I changed our fundraising and buying and selling model so we can continue to demonstrate our value of generosity with our Niniijaanis Giveaways. I have since been exploring and researching statewide services through a mobile school/store- a huge contribution we can make in early childhood efforts beyond our local community.
My fellowship experience brought me to the actualization that I can and SHOULD be doing more for our youngest children. Our products promoting positive cultural identity and teachings has been a great start but what if more people knew? Knew that we could reclaim our children’s education and affirm their identities before we send them to a dominant society that teaches them they are “something else.” We are Anishinaabe, we are Lakota, Dakota, Ho-chunk, Dine, Frist Nations people, etc. We are 500+ federally recognized tribes and every single American should at least know one of them, of the motherland which they are on. However, we know this is often not the case. While our materials were made to center our children, we want to create wider access to our materials and our vision for everyone to join us. Inspired to revitalize Indigenous language and culture in early childhood (birth-six years) for mino-bimaadiziiwin, to live a good life. With an intergenerational and collective approach, we seek to build an ecosystem supporting early childhood efforts in and across Indian country. With a mobile school/store we can pair services with our products, promote educational sovereignty and decolonization, while demonstrating what it is to be a good relative by doing this work together. "Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." -Chief Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Lakota)
