Recalling the impact left by fierce storms in her home country of Mexico, like a powerful hurricane that hit Acapulco, Alejandra Chacon Gallardo says it's scary to start seeing the impacts of a changing world.
“It took everything and we know it’s because of climate change,” she said in an interview at her Saanich office.
Noting one of her daughters is also scared by climate change, Chacon Gallardo knows her generation holds a lot of responsibility for crises happening now. It's why she wants to set an example for her daughters by taking action and finding solutions for global issues.
That helped lead her to starting Regenerative Futures Consulting Corp. last year. Her company strives to help individuals, organizations and communities develop knowledge and tools that can promote planetary health, regenerative practises and sustainability. She also hopes to help people become agents of change.
It'll be important to foster resilient ecosystems and build up peoples' emotional intelligence as climate change and other crises impact the world, Chacon Gallardo said.
“In this way, we can teach our kids how to deal with the changing and complex reality we are living right now,” the entrepreneur said.
After engaging with academic agencies and other organizations, Chacon Gallardo said it's clear there is ample information on how to address climate and other crises. Providing younger generations and others with strategies to take that knowledge and turn it into tangible actions is where Regenerative Futures looks to help.
Before moving from Mexico to do her master's studies in global leadership at Royal Roads University, Chacon Gallardo spent time as a psychoanalyst and was a lawyer who worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
But she wanted to start her business in Canada as the country's interest in the environmental justice was evident and she found many others doing similar work here. She's also met some like-minded entrepreneurs through working with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber recently launched a New to Canada Program that aims to support newcomer entrepreneurs. Whether they arrive as immigrants or refugees, those who come to Greater Victoria with the goal of starting a business may not have the means or network to make it happen, said chamber CEO Bruce Williams.
The New to Canada Program will give participants a free two-year chamber membership, which will include access to the commerce group's events, mentorship opportunities, programs to help newcomers navigate government processes and health benefits.
“We want to do this as a means of mentoring and supporting these folks to give them the best chance to succeed,” Williams said.
After being involved in a gathering that showcases Victoria’s racialized, Indigenous and new-immigrant entrepreneurs, Williams noticed there was a large number of immigrants interested in starting a business.
The New to Canada Program is partnered with the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria and the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society – two agencies Williams said are very good at getting newcomers settled.
“We just wanted to see if we could take this to another level with (those agencies) to get these folks back mainstreamed into the business world,” the chamber CEO said.
Over the coming years, Chacon Gallardo hopes to provide hundreds of courses through Regenerative Futures. After contacting the chamber, she quickly got to pitch her business alongside other startups and she made personal connections with the business group's staff in a short period.
“If there is a possibility of helping you, they will be there,” she said of the chamber. “It’s nice that they are building community.”
Newcomers are an important part of the local economy, so the new program also looks to help the chamber of commerce learn how it can better support those folks, Williams said. With the region already hosting lots of success stories from immigrant businesses, he said helping more of those get off the ground will enhance the local culinary experience and add more diversity to Victoria's commercial and social culture.
“The more we know about other parts of the world, the better we can understand them and be more welcoming to them when they get here, in a time when parts of the world are becoming more polarized,” Williams said. “That makes us all better people and a stronger culture.”
