How Investing in Parents as Business Owners Improves Family Well-being with Zenayda Bonilla

In this episode, hosts Tecoria and Elliott connect with Zenayda Bonilla, a mother who overcame the challenge of feeling silenced by the child welfare system. Zenayda shares her journey of navigating motherhood in a new country and culture, and how she found support through the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn. The Center for Family Life is one of the recipients of the Youth, Family, and Community Partnership Grants, awarded to nonprofits engaging Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities within the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative.

The Center has a unique approach to investing in people like Zenayda through community-driven models that harness the skills they already have and help their families thrive. Zenayda shares how their model of starting and supporting cooperative businesses helped her gain the skills, confidence, and support to become an employee, owner, and leader with United Community Consulting and Golden Steps Elder Care Cooperative. Listeners will learn how cooperatives are an innovative approach to meeting families’ need for stable income, meaningful employment, and quality time with their children—things that traditional child protective services often fail to provide.