Lagoon Prenatal<\/a> after years of working as a massage therapist.<\/p>\n\u201cI was always really enthralled with pregnancy in general,\u201d she says. \u201cMy first semester at massage therapy college we had someone come in and talk about serving pregnant people and attending births, providing massage therapy to people who are labouring, and at that moment\u00a0 I knew that is what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being forced to change locations a number of times, Andrea was able to open the space at 496 Owens Rd. with the help of funding from the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Economic Development Corporation (NEDC).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a non-profit organization and for over 40 years we\u2019ve been providing support and services to Indigenous entrepreneurs on Vancouver Island,\u201d says Mary Finch with the NEDC.<\/p>\n
Recently, Andrea was nominated for the national Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association\u2019s Indigenous Youth Entrepreneurship Award, and out of nearly 59 entries across Canada, she won.<\/p>\n
Watch the full story below:<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrea isn\u2019t just an entrepreneur, she\u2019s an advocate for the space she represents as well as her clients and her exceptional work in the community,\u201d says Mary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the fact that she\u2019s not even 40 years old is really incredible too,\u201d Mary adds. \u201cShe\u2019s not just a role model for women in her community but Indigenous women all around Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrea says she\u2019s proud of what she\u2019s accomplished and that the most satisfying parts of her work are supporting people and building relationships with the community.<\/p>\n
She also has these words of advice for those with entrepreneurial interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t do it alone. Find people in your community, connect with your neighbours, connect with your nation, ask for help if you need it,\u201d she says. \u201cFind your core people, find people you can talk to and share your struggles \u2013 and share your successes too, because people really want to support you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Find more Inspiring Island Women stories here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside Lagoon Prenatal in Colwood there is exactly what parents and parents-to-be need, a calm, serene space and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[45,49,48,137,106275,1062],"class_list":["post-764187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-inspiring-island-women","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}