i'm just so glad that i got this opportunity like i get so emotional just because someone else
believed in my story and my dream the cooperative entrepreneurship training program at vancouver
island university was designed for students with diverse abilities or other barriers to employment
to realize their self-employment goals through entrepreneurship and starting and running their
own business i started my business july of 21 and i have four books out it's just been amazing
transformation for me of having a dream and having the support to realize that my dream
can happen people encourage me keep going keep going you got this this program relies heavily on
the support of community and that comes in a lot of different forms so mentorship guest speakers
networks that they create that they can access beyond the program entrepreneurship relies on a
lot of people to be successful i do some guest lecturing and come and do some guest speaking
and i talk about the importance of business plans access to finance and linking them with mentors
who are willing to provide them guidance and support within our community memento helped me
a lot by getting given me more skills to understand business language and business ideas
to keep my business up and running and in shape like people are coming up literally out of the
woodwork to help me succeed people that you know i never would have dreamed would have even been
walking my journey with me in today's world you know we are really pushed to look at monetizing
all of our activities and this is a way that people with diverse abilities can get onto that
get onto that path themselves and have the support with the cetp program to to actualize those dreams
so turning their hobbies and their passions into employment opportunities we've had a
lot of different businesses and business ideas one that comes to mind is my hubby's bagels one
student and his husband started selling bagels and nanaimo and since the program they have moved from
selling bagels out of their home to then moving into an industrial kitchen and selling and finally
now they're opening their own storefront which is an amazing success for them my business is
the magic of manga which is myself drawing and producing high quality
art i've learned how to properly uh do business timetables uh uh price myself properly
i got my business pen already done it's going really well right now we're just working on my
instagram and facebook pages and now we're working on getting working on pricing now to get the right
pricing i know as a part of the community even if i'm not making like a lot of money if i'm
if i have a job it helps everybody it helps the taxpayers it helps the the people on disabilities
it helps people who don't even think it'll help them because when everybody works together
even when one-sided one person is weaker it really helps the whole entire community
and that's what i think the cet program is doing is helping small people do big things
my dream came true and really only because of the cet program my advice to people with
anything people with autism asperger's um mental health challenges i can you can do it
um i believe in you you can do it don't don't let others squash your things saying that you cannot
do it i can do it you can do it i believe in you and this program believes in you too