Women Wednesday with Katina Washington
#womenwednesday
Across all Hope's social media platforms, this biweekly series will highlight inspiring women to know.
Hope Magazine is a team of thinkers, seekers and creatives who find inspiration in movement, exploration and sisterhood. We want to create meaningful relationships inspired by real women and their stories - all designed for the way you live today!
Meet Katina Washington, creator & Founder of S.H.E. Event Indy, S.H.E. Event Youth Cohort, S.H.E. Creates, S.H.E. Marketplace and the SHExperience Shoppes.
The S.H.E. (She Has Everything) Cooperative provides Black-owned businesses with opportunities for growth and development.
Katina came from a community which lacked resources for Black business owners like herself, so she decided that something had to be done — as Angela Davis once said, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
Instead of sitting back and waiting for the cavalry, Katina chose to use what she had lived to address the needs of her community. After much hard work and a dedicated team, the S.H.E. Event Indy was created, providing venues for Black-owned businesses to increase their customer base and revenue, to learn sound business practices, to build relationships and to circulate their dollars within the Black community.
S.H.E. Event Indy started with three vendors and seventy-five guest. This annual event has grown tremendously since its inception, now bringing together over 250 Black-owned business and over six thousand guest to recycle black dollars. Since 2014, S.H.E. has served over 500 Black-owned businesses and awarded more than 100 micro grants in an effort to assist with one of the most common barriers we face - capital.
For many years, it was a long-term goal of Katina’s to create a space for Black women to come together and practice Cooper economics. To accomplish this, she would need to acquire brick and mortar. While they couldn’t do it individually, collectively everyone could make individual dreams come true. In October 2021, it happened. Taking over the old Victoria’s Secret & Pink space downtown Indianapolis, S.H.E. opened the first Black-owned department store: The SHExperience Shoppes.
This is a unique collaborative of Black women business owners, offering everything from clothing, shoes and accessories to parfums, cosmetics, skincare, candles and art. In addition, S.H.E offers mentor services and the Black Business Study Hall on Wednesdays at 6pm. Understanding the importance of life management, they also offer mental health services. Being in this space has also afforded S.H.E. the opportunity to cross paths with other cultures.
One of the greatest assets at the SHExperience Shoppes is a huge table Victoria’s Secret left behind. They painted it black and inscribed “The Black Table of Intellectual Discourse” right down the center. This is where the magic happens. The black table is where S.H.E comes together as business owners to brainstorm ideas that propel all the businesses beyond their wildest dreams. It’s where they decompress and identify what deposits have been allowed into their mental banks.
Because of these black table discussions, S.H.E. has also had the opportunity to witness business owners from under sourced communities go from behind the vendor table to brick and mortar. As a result of the financial literacy sessions being taught during the Black Business Study Hall, they have seen a financial increase in over 78% of the business owner’s households and business credit scores. They also provide the Workforce Development program, employing young Black girls between 14 and 17 and teaching them financial literacy and banking, life skills, resume building and hold entrepreneurship workshops. This gives them the opportunity to work with successful women who look like them, allowing them to become employable by the time they graduate as well as increase their graduation rate to 98%.
Some other major accomplishments of S.H.E. include the Governor’s Entrepreneurship Award, the Jefferson Award (National), the Excellence in Service Award, the People’s Choice award, the Community Impact Award, and the Madam Walker InspireHer Award.
The S.H.E. brand is more than a notion, it’s a movement. Katina asks that you partner with them to continue this movement. Your donation will help forge them forward, providing unique business acceleration opportunities for Black women business owners to excel, thrive and create generational wealth.
Do you have a life motto or quote you live by?
“SHE is longer bound by fear. SHE is free. SHE will be who SHE was created to BE.”
What inspires you?
My Community and the fact that they trust me.
A fun fact about yourself:
I interviewed Barbara Boyd when I was in the fifth grade. In 1969, Barbara became the first African American female reporter and news anchor in Indiana for WRTV television station, where she become a household name and role model – especially for the African American community – until her retirement in 1994. So it was a very special moment in my life!
@sheeventindy
