Program Overview

The Trinity College Caribbean Project is contacting small entrepreneurs in Caribbean immigrant communities in the Washington-Baltimore area, New York, and Miami, and in the Windward Islands and Haiti, as a part of its efforts to help small businesses compete more effectively in the global marketplace.

A previous initiative carried out by the program permitted small entrepreneurs in the Windward Islands to gain access to technology, including e-commerce, useful for the creation of global business linkages. Our work now explores possibilities for U.S.-based micro-entrepreneurs of Caribbean origin to develop mutually beneficial business alliances with counterparts in the Caribbean, and vice versa. Again, we will focus on the ability of technology to facilitate the forging of such partnerships.

From July to December 2001 we are in a planning phase. We are contacting entrepreneurs so they can tell us about the reality in which they work and the challenges they face in order to expand their enterprises onto the world stage. We anticipate that in 2002 we will execute the implementation phase, providing concrete training, mentoring and distance-learning services to small entrepreneurs in Caribbean migrant communities in selected U.S. cities, and their counterparts in the Windward Islands and Haiti. We aim to assist the formation of mutually beneficial transnational linkages that will improve the opportunities of Caribbean immigrants and strengthen Caribbean economies.

In addition to this objective, the Trinity College Caribbean Program, which was founded in 1992, also sponsors meetings for officials, analysts, and activists in Washington and the Caribbean to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the flow of information. A major focus of all program activities is to help make sure the voices of grassroots constituencies are heard so their concerns can be addressed.