Jenniffer Gonzalez Continues to Support and Promote Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Women

Press Release

Bayamón, Puerto Rico-Women will have a new business training center with the inauguration of the Metro Women's Business Center of the organization Friends of Puerto Rico, located on the Bayamón campus of the University of Puerto Rico ( UPR), in which Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón participated.

The activity was also attended by the regional administrator of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) Marlene Cintrón, the SBA associate administrator for the Office of Business Development Mark Madrid, Mayra Olavarría president of the UPR, Josué Rivera director of the SBA in Puerto Rico, Miguel Vélez Rector of the UPR in Bayamón and Angelique Sina, president of Friends of Puerto Rico, who invited the commissioner to the event.

"Within my work agenda in Congress and as co-chair of the Women's Affairs Caucus, he has always supported entrepreneurial opportunities for women, which helps them develop economic independence, strengthen local economies and increase commercial offers. , among other benefits. Given the importance of these centers in fostering business opportunities and providing resources for women's businesses, I wrote a letter to the Administrator of the SBA supporting Friends of Puerto Rico's request to create this center that we are inaugurating today. It seems to me that this alliance between the UPR in Bayamón and Friends of Puerto Rico will be a great success for women and small businesses in the area," said González Colón.

In her first Congress, the commissioner was part of the Small Business Committee, where she prioritized the development of these in Puerto Rico as fundamental instruments of recovery and economic growth. According to the most recent data available, businesses with less than 100 employees represent 53% of private jobs in Puerto Rico.

González Colón has held virtual training workshops for women; It worked together with United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), and the Department of Economic Development (DDEC) to offer the University of Exporting Women in Puerto Rico, a training opportunity led by UPS to equip women entrepreneurs with the tools and the resources needed to be globally competitive and increase the participation of women-owned businesses in international trade. Also for this reason, she supported the expansion that the SBA has made to the Women's Business Centers program in Puerto Rico with two additional centers.

In Congress, work is being done on legislation co-authored by Jenniffer González to support women entrepreneurs: HR 6441 "The Women's Business Centers Improvement Act of 2022", bipartisan legislation at the federal level to strengthen and expand the business center program of women and ensure that the centers have the necessary resources to provide services to women entrepreneurs and HR 6445 "The Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2022", legislation that provides an additional $40 million dollars for the program that allows an expansion of its services.

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