Focus Points: The pandemic has hit the restaurant business hard. That's creating an opportunity for some immigrant women in Denver.

This is a story product from Colorado Equity Compass (CEC) Awardee, Focus Points Family Resource Center. The Center serves thousands of diverse adults and many face some of the greatest barriers to educational attainment and economic stability in the state. Comal is a heritage food incubator with a mission to serve as a platform for economic development for aspiring immigrant and refugee women entrepreneurs, where they can learn the skills to find a great job in the industry or launch their own business using our earn-while-you-learn model. Located in Denver, and launched by Focus Points Family Resource Center in 2016, this purposeful restaurant was formed in direct response to the community-identified need for economic opportunity in the face of gentrification. Since Comal opened its doors, the training program has served 24 participants and helped launch four businesses. This article feature by CNN showcases the journey of one of the participants, Silvia, as she works to build a new life and new career for herself and her family in Denver. The economic development aspect of Comal is a “earn while you learn” model, following the philosophy of a family resource center to support families in financial sustainability. While participants are learning on the job they are also earning a stipend to support their training efforts. The stipend is positioned as economic support to participants who might not otherwise be able to invest this time into training and developing their business.