A free program helping Black and racialized youth ages 15–34 in Greater Winnipeg turn ideas into real businesses with hands-on training, real mentors, and a community that builds together.
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See the three paths
Build Together • Share the Harvest • Lift the Next
The UJAMAA Youth Entrepreneurship Program is a free program from Rahma Community & Youth Centre. UJAMAA is a Swahili word meaning familyhood a community that builds and owns its own businesses, profits from them together, and lifts each other as it grows.
You don't need money, connections, or business experience to join. You bring an idea or just your curiosity and your drive. We bring hands-on training, mentors who run real businesses, guidance from bankers, accountants, and lawyers, and a community that has your back from your first lesson to your first sale. The whole program is designed to run from the phone already in your pocket.
What UJAMAA offers
Real Business Skills
Pricing, profit, cash flow, branding, digital marketing, and winning customers — taught in plain language, step by step.
Mentors & a Professional Network
Bankers, accountants, lawyers, and local business owners teach inside the program and become part of your network.
A Real Venture, Not Just a Certificate
You won't only study business you'll build one, with one to one coaching at every stage, and graduate with a running venture, a clear roadmap, and ongoing mentorship.
A Community That Builds Together
Your classmates become your first customers, clients, and collaborators — so value grows and stays close to home.
Choose your path
Everyone starts on the same shared foundation. Then you pick one of three streams and go deep, guided by experts and mentors from that field.
01
Food Trucks & Mobile Catering
Turn your love of food into a business that feeds and gathers your community. Learn food safety and certification, permits and licensing, menu development and recipe costing, kitchen operations, and mobile business marketing taught with chefs and food-safety experts.
You'll build: a mobile food or catering business serving the community and local events.
02
E-Commerce
Build and launch your own online store. Learn product and niche selection, storefront setup on platforms like Shopify and Etsy, payments and checkout, product photography, order fulfillment, and the marketing that turns visitors into customers.
You'll build: an online store selling your products in Winnipeg and beyond.
03
Digital Services
Become the person local businesses call. Learn web design, social media management, digital marketing, and how to use AI tools to deliver professional results then land real paying clients, starting with the founders in your own cohort.
You'll build: a service business that creates and manages the digital presence of local businesses.
How the program works
01
The Commons a shared foundation
Everyone learns the six things every founder needs: the founder's mindset, business and money basics, building your brand, your digital capability, the customer and the sale, and the commitment to give back. Real professionals teach alongside our facilitators.
02
Your Road go deep into your craft
Choose Food Trucks & Mobile Catering, E-Commerce, or Digital Services, and learn the specific skills of your stream from domain experts and mentors.
03
The Village Exchange build for each other
The streams serve and trade with one another: digital services youth build websites for the food and store ventures, the food stream caters community events, and the store stream creates the merchandise. Your cohort becomes your first marketplace.
04
Community Market Day launch together
The program closes with a community market where all three streams operate side by side as one local economy for a day cooking, selling, and serving the community together.
The UJAMAA WAY
"The one who is lifted becomes the one who lifts."
UJAMAA is built on a cycle. You enter with talent and drive. You gain training, tools, mentors, and a community that believes in you. Your venture grows and begins to earn. And then, out of what you've built, you give back mentoring, hiring, trading with, or supporting the next young founder standing where you stand today. That's not a fee, and it's not charity. It's power: it means you are someone with something to give, and a builder of your community's prosperity.
Build Together • Share the Harvest • Lift the Next
Ready to build?
Spots are limited and offered by cohort. It costs nothing to apply, and you don't need a finished idea just bring yourself.
NEXT COHORT
Starting Soon
COST
Free no fees, ever
NEXT COHORT
20 weeks
NEXT COHORT
Chalmers Community Centre, 480 Chalmers Avenue, Winnipeg
Partner with UJAMAA
UJAMAA works because professionals and businesses show up for young people. Banks and credit unions teach financial basics and welcome new founders as customers. Lawyers and accountants teach the legal and financial literacy that protects them. Business owners mentor, open doors, and trade with new ventures. Donors invest in a cycle designed to compound because every graduate is built to give back.
"Why should anyone donate if you never invested in them? This program is a solution to that enabling youth to become the future donors of our community, one youth at a time."
Rahma, Executive Director
Become a Partner
Frequently asked questions
Ready To Start Your Business Journey?
Free for Black and racialized youth ages 15–34 in Greater Winnipeg.