Catholic Social Services is piloting new programming to support entrepreneurs and job seekers navigate into Ohio’s workforce.

Mercadito Raices (“Our Roots Market”): Latino businesses represent a significant growth opportunity for central Ohio. Over the last ten years, the number of Latino businesses owners has grown by 44%, compared to 4% for all other business owners (Steen, 2022).   

 The Ohio Small Business Development Center is partnering with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Center to offer Mercadito Raices (“Our Roots Market”), a series of twelve workshops to help Hispanic entrepreneurs prepare their businesses to successfully participate in ¡Festival Latino! and other local festivals and events.  

 The OLGC and instructors from the Small Business Administration and Columbus Economic Development department assisted nine Hispanic entrepreneurs who launched their businesses at ¡Festival Latino! on August 12-13, 2023. Eight of the nine participants in Mercadito Raices were women.   

  The OLGC is expanding Mercadito Raices in 2024. We offered five free introductory workshops for aspiring Hispanic entrepreneurs in the fall 2023-winter 2024 and had 97 participants. Twenty-seven people are currently enrolled in the Mercadito Raices classes, and we are anticipating that 22 Hispanic entrepreneurs will complete the classes and launch their businesses in summer-fall 2024.