Program helps women turn their ideas into industries

If you're a woman looking to improve your work skills, standard of living, or even turn your hobby into a business, the Oasis Empowerment Center has just the program for you. The intersection of dreams and reality is where the organization's Dream Project comes into play.
"We help you fulfill your dream, whether it's to get a job at a certain place, we'll help you get an internship, and if you want to start your own personal business, we'll help you with that," said Alexis Bordallo, a class facilitator. Program manager Holly Rustick added, "Basically what it is is to help women, to help women in poverty, so it's basically the requirements is having a certain income threshold, and they can come into the program receive workforce training, microenterprise development training, we also have small seed start-up grants for different micro-enterprises."
"It's really for women who feel they need a little help, have the mindset, they really have the motivation to work on improving themselves," Bordallo added.
One of several skills taught during the program is computer literacy. Bordallo said, "I'm a computer science and math major at UOG, and we're starting from really basic computer skills to turning on a computer, all the way to learning how to write a resume on Microsoft Word."
The program also helps women in their personal development- everything from goal setting, to team building. And for participants of Chamorro, Saipanese, native Hawaiian, or American Indian descent within the income requirements, there is a free nine-month housing and transportation option within the program.
Rustick added, "The whole aim for the dream project is basically to help women in Guam to be able to receive a living wage., and that's hard to do with our economy. So we don't just want to bring them out of poverty to a minimum wage standard, and that's why the emphasis is somewhat on the microenterprise development, because we really want to see them flourish.
"We really want to break that cycle of poverty."
For interested individuals, the program begins this July, and you can register by calling the Oasis Empowerment Center at 646-4601.