© 2024 WYSO
Our Community. Our Nation. Our World.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Business accelerator for women awarded over $200,000 toward expansion in the Dayton region

Aviatra Accelerators
/
Submitted

Aviatra Accelerators, a nonprofit that provides business training to local women, has received $216,000 state money to expand its programs in the Dayton region. The money is from the Ohio Third Frontier Commision, through the Dayton Entrepreneurs’ Center, and will be divided over a three-year period.

The Cincinnati-based organization works with female entrepreneurs in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and technology. They said the money from the state will go toward operational costs to reach more businesses with education and resources in the Dayton region.

Jill Morenz, the president of Aviatra, said even though they have office space at the Entrepreneur's center, they want to get the programs directly to those who need them.

“We have found that it's really important to bring the programming to where the students are,” Morenz said. “So we are taking our boot camp and our workshops out to surrounding areas in Dayton.

Some of Aviatra’s programs include:

  • Explore Bootcamps: These bootcamps are for new women entrepreneurs to learn how to set up their business.
  • Women’s Mastermind Hot Seat Cohort: A year-long program for women entrepreneurs to give and get business advice in hot seat-style gatherings.
  • SOAR workshops: This is for women entrepreneurs in any stage of business.The workshops provide coaching sessions in areas like marketing and legal.
  • Side Hustle without the Hustle workshop: These are free workshops for anyone with a business idea.

Aviatra said they will hold workshops in Kettering in April and May. They also plan to offer additional workshops in the Dayton region throughout the year. 

“There's actually a really robust ecosystem in Dayton to serve entrepreneurs, and we're so proud to be part of that,” Morenz said.

Ngozi Cole is the Business and Economics Reporter for WYSO. She graduated with honors from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York and is a 2022 Pulitzer Center Post-Graduate Reporting Fellow. Ngozi is from Freetown, Sierra Leone.