Media Releases

Rise Asset Development launches operations in Ottawa through Causeway Work Centre

March 14, 2013

TORONTO/OTTAWA, ON — Since 2009, Rise Asset Devel­op­ment, with the sup­port of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and the Cen­tre for Addic­tion and Men­tal Health (CAMH), has pro­vid­ed micro­fi­nanc­ing and men­tor­ship to entre­pre­neurs with a his­to­ry of men­tal health or addic­tion chal­lenges in the Greater Toron­to Area.

On March 21, Rise is cel­e­brat­ing its expan­sion into Ottawa. Rise will oper­ate through Cause­way Work Cen­tre as Rise Ottawa. Cause­way Work Cen­tre is a com­mu­ni­ty eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tion that empow­ers and sup­ports peo­ple in over­com­ing dis­abil­i­ties and oth­er chal­lenges to help them find reward­ing work and live more inde­pen­dent­ly.

Media are invit­ed to attend the open­ing lunch with the founders, friends, clients and finan­cial sup­port­ers of Rise.

EVENT DETAILS

WHEN: Thurs­day, March 21 at 12:00 to 1:30pm

WHERE: Cause­way Work Cen­tre, 22 O’Meara Street, Ottawa (Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Gdrp3)

Rise oper­ates with the gen­er­ous sup­port of donors – San­dra Rot­man, the Ontario gov­ern­ment, Citi Foun­da­tion and the RBC Foun­da­tion. In response to the demand of Rise financ­ing and sup­port for micro-busi­ness, the Toron­to-based not-for-prof­it is expand­ing across the province through col­lab­o­ra­tions with com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions.

“Rise has been instru­men­tal in improv­ing the lives of its clients by help­ing them start-up or re-start their entre­pre­neur­ial ven­tures. I’m delight­ed that entre­pre­neurs in the Ottawa area fac­ing employ­ment prob­lems as a result of men­tal health or addic­tion chal­lenges will now be able to ben­e­fit from the men­tor­ing and finan­cial sup­port pro­vid­ed by the orga­ni­za­tion,” says San­dra Rot­man, a Toron­to phil­an­thropist who estab­lished Rise with a found­ing gift.

Build­ing on the strong com­mu­ni­ty net­work of Cause­way, Rise will also be pro­vid­ing Ottawa based entre­pre­neurs with men­tors from the local busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and busi­ness school alum­nae. Over the years, Cause­way has devel­oped a vari­ety of employ­ment sup­ports and options designed to assist per­sons liv­ing with a men­tal ill­ness or addic­tions chal­lenges to become more eco­nom­i­cal­ly inde­pen­dent.

“Rise Asset Devel­op­ment pro­vides small busi­ness sup­ports and access to afford­able loans that the entre­pre­neurs seek­ing Causeway’s self-employ­ment ser­vices have been lack­ing. Thanks to our Rise col­lab­o­ra­tion, a strong sys­tem of self-employ­ment ser­vices can now be added to Causeway’s oth­er sup­port­ed employ­ment offer­ings” notes Don Palmer, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Cause­way Work Cen­tre.

Nao­mi Muise is the own­er of Celeeak­Nak, a gluten-free cater­ing busi­ness and the first entre­pre­neur in the Ottawa region financed through Rise Ottawa. “Rein­vent­ing myself and my career wasn’t easy. When I start­ed my busi­ness I believed it was the right thing to do, but there was so many doors that were closed to me.  Rise helped to open all of them.  Now my com­pa­ny grows a bit every day — I love the taste of suc­cess!”

Rise Asset Devel­op­ment works to empow­er busi­ness own­ers with access to financ­ing and busi­ness sup­port. The orga­ni­za­tion rec­og­nizes the inter­de­pen­den­cy of finan­cial well-being to one’s over­all qual­i­ty of life. Rise is com­mit­ted to improv­ing the lives of peo­ple who are unable to secure employ­ment due to men­tal health or addic­tions chal­lenges. Rise, with the sup­port of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and the Cen­tre for Addic­tion and Men­tal Health (CAMH), pro­vides micro­fi­nanc­ing and men­tor­ship to men and women liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness and addic­tions who are inter­est­ed in pur­su­ing self-employ­ment.

Rise offers busi­ness loans, leas­es and oth­er invest­ments, based on stage of devel­op­ment, needs and capac­i­ty, includ­ing busi­ness financ­ing up to $25,000 through­out Ontario, with aver­age ini­tial financ­ing from $3,000 to $5,000.

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion may be found at www.riseassetdevelopment.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Narinder Dha­mi
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
Rise Asset Devel­op­ment
Tel: 416.978.5530
narinder@riseassetdevelopment.ca
Twit­ter @riseCAN
Face­book Rise Asset Devel­op­ment

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416.946.3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool