UMass MPPA '13 graduate Kevin Moforte presents his most recent venture to the Net Impact membership.

Upward Ventures is a nonprofit organization that works to eradicate extreme poverty working with families and communities to kickstart businesses that provide jobs, empowerment and dignity to people that need them the most.

Upwards Ventures attacks the roots of poverty by creating meaningful employment for poor families, kickstarting businesses that provide jobs – good jobs so people of the community can support their families. Our businesses create products that not only compete and thrive in the open market but also that poor communities can use to improve their quality of life. We hire mainly women, as we know they carry most of the burden of their family’s wellbeing and are more likely to make the investments their children need.

The starting point is Las Malvinas, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Las Malvinas is a growing community of 450+ families tucked between a park, an industrial zone and the River Isabella. Although Las Malvinas has brought in some urban services, these investments quickly decay without proper care, and most families remain poor due to erratic and low-wage employment. Upward Ventures co-creates businesses to provide the empowerment and dignity of employment, so families can lift themselves from poverty.

Our first project is to launch a soap factory in Las Malvinas, to produce handcrafted, high quality soap for several customer segments. The factory will be set up and managed by staff of Upward Ventures and employ local women to make and distribute the soap.