UP FROM THE ROCKS
Women from 3 businesses sharing goal of mentorship
Lashawn Reed’s business, called Strong Ambitious Women, mentors African-American girls in the Sto-Rox and Pittsburgh Public school districts. The goal is to help them develop confidence and self-esteem, and to avoid bad choices such as drug use and bullying.
The McKees Rocks native who grew up with a drug-addicted mother has a long-term plan to open a “safe center” in the community — a place where girls can congregate for structured activities including journaling and peace circles to talk about conflicts.
Connie Capiotis also wants to help teens and young adult women in the McKees Rocks area. Her Digital Bridges initiative provides social media safety tips, connections to online career training and other resources. She provides laptop computers and a mobile curriculum to clients in different settings.
Denise Zellous runs a tiny nonprofit, Zellous Hope Project, that focuses on assisting women and men trying to find jobs after being incarcerated or spending time in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. A recovering addict for nearly two decades, she envisions opening a male version of the Dress for Success program in McKees Rocks, a way to give struggling men access to donated apparel to wear to job interviews and the workplace.
The three women didn’t know each other until March.
But since meeting through Launch Sto-Rox, a business incubator, they’ve discovered a synergy in their missions.
Ms. Zellous invited Ms. Capiotis and Ms. Reed to join the board of directors at Zellous Hope Project and the women now have a shared goal of providing mentorship and help to a range of generations in the former industrial town.
Launch Sto-Rox is a yearlong program that aims to jump-start business activity in the distressed neighborhoods of McKees Rocks and Stowe. The incubator is a project from the New Sun Rising nonprofit whose mission is to help revitalize lowincome communities in and around Pittsburgh.
Already, there are signs that the ambitious project will face a few speed bumps along the way.
Since March, the participants have been meeting once a month. They gather at Focus on Renewal, a community resource center on McKees Rocks’ main drag, Chartiers Avenue, for guidance and feedback as they develop business plans and seek funding sources.
Of the 10 entrepreneurs selected for the incubator, one has already dropped out.
Reanimated in Pittsburgh, an art and design studio that uses reclaimed materials, gave up its seat because its founder was strapped for time while pursuing other opportunities, said Scott Wolovich, executive director of New Sun Rising.
It’s not unusual to lose some entrepreneurs along the way, Mr. Wolovich said. He has seen it before when managing similar incubators for New Sun Rising in Millvale, North Side, Wilkinsburg and the city’s Hilltop-Allentown neighborhood.
“The reality of entrepreneurship can be much different than the dream,” he said.
“Working long hours for little income can be rough when first getting started, and the emotional toll is a challenge,” Mr. Wolovich said. “The typical Launch cohort will see one out of 10 participants drop out before the yearlong program concludes.”
Nationally, he said, 50 percent
of small businesses fail within the first four years of creation.
So far, New Sun Rising is beating that stat, with 87 percent of firms in its incubators since 2015 still operating.
Support for the effort has come from the community. After reading a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about the project last month, Michael Egenlauf of Stowe offered his help with the Launch StoRox entrepreneurs’ websites, social media and vinyl decals for logos.
Mr. Egenlauf works full time in cyber defense for Bayer Corp. in Robinson and is a technical director for Gazette 2.0, a community publication in McKees Rocks that is also part of the incubator.
“I enjoy helping out small charities and local businesses that need tech help,” he said.
The incubator’s monthly sessions have provided much-needed support to Ms. Capiotis, a solo entrepreneur who lives in Elliott. She became familiar with McKees Rocks because she frequently shops at the borough’s Aldi supermarket.
“What makes [the incubator] work is holding people’s hands and coming together as a group,” she said. “You see the success of your peers and they can cheer you on and hold you accountable. That’s really the magic secret sauce: listeningand education.”
A model for the type of program Ms. Capiotis wants to do in McKees Rocks is underway in Hazelwood, another community that has faced economic challenges. There she works with teen girls on digital skills and other projects.
New Sun Rising last year received a $10,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments to launch a pilot of Digital Bridges’ mentoring program in Hazelwood. Until Digital Bridges receives its nonprofit tax status, it is being sponsoredby New Sun Rising.
For its part, Digital Bridges is an expanded version of the Social Media Advisory Council founded in 2013 after a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, generated national attention from social media posts.
In McKees Rocks, Ms. Capiotis said Sto-Rox High School or the Father Ryan Arts Center, where many students attend after-school programs, would be an ideal site for her training and workshops.
“But I don’t have to be married to one location,” she said.
“I can do it in church basements, or in a park, wherever is the best for the people in the group.”
Ms. Capiotis, Ms. Reed and Ms. Zellous acknowledged that securing financing and learning best strategies for attracting clients have been challenges.
At the incubator’s May gathering, which focused on marketing and sales, Shawn Graham, founder of Gibsonia marketing firm Deep Varnish, told participants that as startups they’ll have to “wear both hats: having the idea and selling it.”
He advised the entrepreneurs to carve out time each week — even if they can spare just20 to 45 minutes — to focus on marketing tools, including their websites, email and GoogleMy Business.
Jeb Feldman, who is trying to develop a co-working and small production space in McKees Rocks, noted a tough marketing task for Launch Sto-Rox members will be selling their services in a place largely identified by its crime, empty storefronts and an agingpopulation.
“Unlike the Beauty Shoppe [a co-working space with sites in the city’s East End and elsewhere], we’re not trying to get people to [a place] which is very central and near the universities. Here there’s a challenge of perception.”