Echo Collective

Niheala Ponnatha Author

05/26/2022 Added

28 Plays

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Story for Heartland Webzine.

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[00:00:00.696]My name is Nyabuoy Chan.
[00:00:02.230]I'm Marcela Medina.
[00:00:03.540]My name is Bia de Espinoza.
[00:00:06.690]My name is Cecilia Vargas.
[00:00:09.010]Hi, my name is Olga.
[00:00:11.140]Hi, my name is Kathia.
[00:00:13.540]These are the women of the ECHO Collective,
[00:00:15.790]a group of entrepreneurs
[00:00:17.020]who are all immigrant and refugee women,
[00:00:19.680]who have moved to Nebraska to start their new lives
[00:00:21.910]as business owners.
[00:00:23.440]At the ECHO Collective,
[00:00:24.500]which is run by founder Kelly Ross,
[00:00:26.770]pictured in the very front,
[00:00:28.840]these women receive special training and classes
[00:00:31.080]on how to start and develop their own businesses.
[00:00:34.086]Well, in my background,
[00:00:36.340]women usually don't even have a business,
[00:00:38.960]or even work outside the home.
[00:00:42.100]So it was a great opportunity for me
[00:00:44.320]to be even able to say that I'm starting my own business.
[00:00:48.970]So I'm just happy to be here,
[00:00:51.360]where I can have my freedom,
[00:00:53.410]when I can do whatever that I feel like I can do,
[00:00:55.940]or something that I'm good at it.
[00:00:58.770]Kelly stay there with you, support you,
[00:01:00.740]provide you anything you need for your business
[00:01:03.320]when we're up here.
[00:01:04.830]And that is amazing,
[00:01:06.180]because you can feel more secure, confident,
[00:01:09.320]and it's wonderful.
[00:01:11.470]ECHO Collective changed my life.
[00:01:15.580]It's the best program.
[00:01:18.780]And ECHO collective is not just a program for business.
[00:01:25.640]ECHO Collective is a big family.
[00:01:29.730]The ECHO collective is a space
[00:01:31.050]for community and collaboration.
[00:01:33.710]Join us for a short tour with the founder, Kelly Ross.
[00:01:37.030]We are standing in the Refinery classroom.
[00:01:40.220]It's a really special place,
[00:01:41.490]because this is where we all come together
[00:01:43.360]and we learn about running a business.
[00:01:45.300]But it's a lot more than that.
[00:01:46.870]We also do personal development,
[00:01:49.910]and we connect together and create a community,
[00:01:52.540]which a lot of the women don't have,
[00:01:54.920]because they moved here from another country
[00:01:56.480]and left a lot of their community behind.
[00:01:58.730]So it's really enjoyable to build that community here,
[00:02:01.900]where we can learn about what it's like to live in Lincoln,
[00:02:05.210]and work with the American culture,
[00:02:07.170]but also about the cultures
[00:02:09.370]that these women are bringing with them into the class.
[00:02:13.220]And so this is where we spend a lot of our time,
[00:02:15.710]in The Refinery.
[00:02:17.920]The different aspects that we use
[00:02:20.500]in order to make this a more inclusive space
[00:02:23.240]is we have hybrid video technology,
[00:02:26.670]where if a woman needs to stay home
[00:02:28.310]because she has sick children,
[00:02:29.300]we work with a lot of mothers,
[00:02:31.860]then we're able to bring them in through our system,
[00:02:36.220]and we put them up on the TV
[00:02:38.320]and they're able to connect with us
[00:02:39.650]in that way from their home.
[00:02:43.180]As you can see, we have some models.
[00:02:46.630]These women work really hard
[00:02:47.770]for us to display the textile creativity
[00:02:52.000]that a lot of our women have.
[00:02:54.280]We have a garment rack,
[00:02:57.040]and then you'll see
[00:02:58.850]we have a lot of different textiles and sewing notions
[00:03:03.330]available for our makers.
[00:03:05.380]They're welcome to come in
[00:03:06.410]and take any of this at any time
[00:03:08.430]to help with startup costs and material costs.
[00:03:11.210]And then of course, since we work with a lot of mothers,
[00:03:13.320]you'll also find things like
[00:03:14.930]stacks of diapers and baby wipes
[00:03:16.950]that we give out for free,
[00:03:18.700]for women who are not only starting a new business,
[00:03:21.630]but have infants at home that they're taking care of.
[00:03:25.070]We really enjoy highlighting art
[00:03:27.090]of our Refinery entrepreneurs in this space.
[00:03:30.040]We want it to feel like a piece of home.
[00:03:34.240]And so we have a lot of students who, when they come in,
[00:03:36.930]they say, "Wow, I feel really comfortable here."
[00:03:40.320]And we have a lot of makers
[00:03:42.000]who come through as our Refinery entrepreneurs.
[00:03:44.200]And so we like to highlight what they do.
[00:03:46.280]And so up here, you can see a wood-burned piece.
[00:03:49.340]That is from Saja Kinani of Saja Craft.
[00:03:52.300]She's actually graduating tomorrow, May 1, 2022,
[00:03:55.700]from our fourth Refinery cohort.
[00:03:58.620]And then I also want to highlight this clock.
[00:04:02.250]This was made by Karen refugees in Thailand,
[00:04:07.790]and then sold
[00:04:08.720]in order to make money for their kids to go to school.
[00:04:11.870]And it's sold through a woman named Elevina Sein
[00:04:14.410]and she has a business called K'nyaw Modern Tradition,
[00:04:17.350]where she sells pieces made by people from her home country
[00:04:21.740]in order to support them,
[00:04:23.240]and to ensure that the Karen culture
[00:04:25.610]is kept alive here in Lincoln, Nebraska.
[00:04:29.530]The ECHO collective
[00:04:30.363]is a truly inspirational place.
[00:04:32.240]And the women who study here
[00:04:33.490]leverage their talents to produce outstanding businesses.
[00:04:37.190]Make sure to follow and support them,
[00:04:38.770]to give back to the Heartland.
[00:04:40.829](upbeat music)

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Echo Collective

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