Thank you very much.
Dear members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
My name is Karen Greve Young. I am the CEO of Futurpreneur Canada. We are a national non-profit organization that helps diverse aspiring entrepreneurs launch successful businesses across the country.
We have a long-standing partnership with the Government of Canada, consistently working together since 2001 and, in fact, in Futurpreneur's 27-year history, we have supported more than 17,700 entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39 in launching more than 14,000 businesses spanning every province and territory. Quebec has been our largest province to date.
Our unique model combines up to $60,000 of collateral-free loan financing alongside one-to-one mentorship, and we have a unique partnership with the BDC through which we co-lend our resources.
We fill a critical gap by helping diverse young entrepreneurs who otherwise might struggle to access the financing and mentorship they need to launch a successful business.
We provide all of our services in both official languages, French and English, to all our clients across the country no matter where they are. As a national Canadian organization, we always ensure that we consistently serve entrepreneurs in the official language of their choice. In fact, I have been with Futurpreneur for five years. Since I joined, we have grown our bilingual capacity by 82% to ensure seamless client support in both official languages.
Today, all of Futurpreneur's 120 employees are fluent in English, and nearly 50% of our staff are fluent in French, either francophone or fully bilingual. We have the capacity to communicate with and serve all clients and members of the public in either official language at any time in any region. Our Quebec-based staff are all fully bilingual and can serve English-speaking clients as well as francophone clients.
We purposely invest in francophone talent, skills and experience outside of Quebec to best serve and represent the diverse needs and experiences of official-language minority communities. Over half of our French-speaking staff are located outside Quebec, and every Futurpreneur team has at least one fully bilingual team member.
We also have more than a dozen team members, including myself, who can work in French, although they have not completely mastered the language and are not counted among the 50% of the team who are perfectly bilingual.
Futurpreneur is committed to inclusive economic impact and achieves this by helping diverse young entrepreneurs start and succeed. Recognizing and elevating the diversity of OLMC entrepreneurs, including newcomers, BIPOC entrepreneurs, 2SLGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs and people with disabilities, means taking an intersectional approach and understanding that linguistic barriers may be part of a wider set of systemic barriers.
As we are meeting during Black History Month, I do want to specifically note the importance of supporting Black entrepreneurs across Canada, many of whom are francophones outside of Quebec. One of the entrepreneurs who received a loan and mentorship through Futurpreneur's Black entrepreneur start-up program is Ingrid Brousillon, a francophone newcomer who settled in Vancouver. Ingrid is the founder of Griottes Polyglottes, a company focused on team-building and personal development through theatre workshops.
We recently featured Ingrid in our Black History Month storytelling campaign with an interview that you can find on our social media channels that seamlessly goes between French and English. Her story highlights the importance of ensuring that the entrepreneurial ecosystem can support OLMCs anywhere in Canada. In fact, Futurpreneur's Black entrepreneur's start-up program team, who are all members of the Black community, are bilingual and able to provide services in French or English.
Our indigenous entrepreneur start-up program, which is fully staffed by members of indigenous communities, also has members who can provide services in both English and French.
I do want to highlight the importance of partnerships with local, regional and national organizations, associations and networks that support OLMC entrepreneurs. Futurpreneur works with a variety of partners and organizations focused on OLMCs to refer or recruit entrepreneurs, to share information and best practices and to work on collaborative initiatives.
This model has been highly successful, and we consistently work with the ecosystem across Canada to ensure that programs adequately serve diverse young entrepreneurs in OLMCs, thus contributing to Canada's inclusive socio-economic development.
