As part of a grant Youth Opportunities is submitting to the European Union next week, we have been meeting with potential beneficiaries. These are residents of Allman Town, an inner-city community that has suffered from the usual problems that plague these areas: crime, violence, high illiteracy rates, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, gang warfare and poverty. We are focusing on income-generating projects and have found several business owners who show entrepreneurial spirit, who have run a successful business, but are stalled at a subsistence level. They would benefit greatly from a small financial boost, some training in business planning, budgeting and marketing. Here is a character sketch of someone we visited today.

Miss Marcia Vidal is one of these individuals. She is a trained potter. For the past several years, she has operated a pottery business in Allman Town. Miss Vidal produces about 300 bricks per day, plus numerous other pieces of pottery that she designs herself. Her business has been incorporated for at least three years and she owns the lot on which she runs Clays.She is a member of the Exporter’s Association. In addition, it should be noted that Miss Vidal owns a restaurant on the property. It is under renovation right now, but she has a good portion of the equipment she needs, and has already lined up a manager to run it.

While Miss Vidal has a healthy business, it is being held back by a lack of production equipment. In fact, Miss Vidal demonstrated at least two pottery machines that are inoperable. Each potter’s wheel costs $75,000 to fix.She also requires a pug mill to increase production capacity, which costs roughly $500,000 (plus shipping costs, as it must be sourced from the U.S. or Canada or the U.K.) An increase in production capacity would see Miss Vidal go from employing three people to six people. In addition, this would allow Miss Vidal to provide a training facility for educational institutions such as the University of West Indies’ Geology Department and the UCC. Miss Vidal would also be able to assume a sense of corporate social responsibility if she obtained more equipment and was able to refurbish the space, as several community programs have inquired about running programs for unattached or at-risk youth to learn pottery-making at her facility.

Miss Vidal has no shortage of customer. In fact, she cannot keep up with demand. Her customers include an owner of a major fast food chain and a major department store. In her own words, Miss Vidal says she is “not going to stop because I know this is going to be tops.”