Local Nonprofit Making Business Dreams Come True For Oklahoma Minorities

StitchCrew is a local nonprofit, turning minority women into business owners.

“StitchCrew is an organization started back in 2017 with the sole goal of building a more equitable economy through entrepreneurship,” said Erika Lucas, founder of StitchCrew. 

Initially, the idea of helping local entrepreneurs wasn’t embraced. “When we first started stitch crew people thought we were crazy. We heard a lot of things like, this is not real economic development,” said Lucas.

The negativity, however, only motivated Lucas. “Hearing the no’s actually fueled my fire to say ok, well I’ll do it then,” said Lucas. Her determination finally paid off. “Our first yes was the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA team, that had nothing to do with economic development and or entrepreneurship, but they saw the opportunity to invest in the community,” said Lucas.

With The Thunder on board, the second investor was Google. “Google back in 2018 gave us a fifty-thousand-dollar grant,” said Lucas. 

The technology giant still believes in the Oklahoma City nonprofit. “Then this year, they also gave us another sixty-five thousand dollars,” said Lucas.

The money will go specifically to help Cherokee women entrepreneurs and the Latino accelerators program. “Latinos represent twenty-one percent of our population here in Oklahoma City and are the fastest growing demographic, but also they are launching businesses faster than any other demographic,” said Lucas.

Since their inception StitchCrew has helped launch two hundred and one minority businesses in Oklahoma City, giving not only personal mentorship and money but also a little encouragement when needed. “One day at a time and one step at a time and after many no’s, you’ll get those yeses and it gives you that little push that you need to keep going,” said Lucas.

Right now StitchCrew is recruiting for their Spring 2024 Accelerator program. It is geared toward Latino Oklahomans, but available to every minority. For information about StitchCrew and all their programs visit their website www.stitchcrew.com.