Women’s Economic Mobility Hub (WEM Hub)

WFA commissioned a report in 2018, Economic Indicators for Women in Arkansas: State, County, & Region, which showed that the eastern edge of the state has both the highest rates of women living below the poverty line and the most women owned businesses. The Women’s Economic Mobility Hub works to leverage those findings by applying a racial and gender lens to a program designed specifically to support underserved women owned businesses as vehicles for economic mobility.

About:

The Women’s Economic Mobility Hub (WEM Hub) is designed to support women entrepreneurs from underserved communities, with a priority in the Arkansas Delta region, by providing technical assistance along with additional resources, including $5,000 in unrestricted grant funds to help scale their businesses.

An ideal WEM Hub participant will be able to commit to a seven-month program in which underserved women entrepreneurs can access tailored support services through a combination of online trainings and in-person meetings, including:

• Expert advice from leading industry professionals surrounding topics such as marketing & communications; accounting and financial management; business development; legal services; access the capital; and more;
• Ongoing mentorship support and counsel;
• Peer to peer learning sessions;
• Communications, public relations, and marketing training;
• Leadership skill development; and
• Opportunity to establish a relationship with participating financial institutions.

Who can apply & Eligibility requirements: 

Who can apply:

Any women-owned business in the state of Arkansas that meets the eligibility requirements below, with priority given to women business owners in the Arkansas Delta or other underserved areas in the state. 

Applicants will be selected based on the following criteria:

1. Must be able to participate in (via teleconference) six, two-hour monthly WEM Hub sessions, which will include engaging and interactive  technical assistance and business education sessions. These sessions are typically held monthly via Zoom on Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:30pm. 
2. Must be able to participate in required in-person WEM Hub Orientation/ Welcome Reception and Closing Reception, which will be held in person in Central Arkansas in mid-July and mid-January, respectively.  Exact date and location to be determined. 
3. Must be an existing business in which 75% is owned and operated by one or more women who are U.S. citizens.
4. Must be a bona-fide registered business operating for more than one year within the state of Arkansas.
5. Must be an entity operating as a for-profit corporation, partnership, LLP or LLC, or sole proprietorship. Not-for-profit corporations or similar non-profit entities are not eligible.
6. Must be in good standing with the Arkansas Secretary of State and be current on all county, state, and federal taxes.

WEM Hub Expanded in Northwest Arkansas!!

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas has expanded the Women’s Economic Mobility (WEM) Hub to Northwest Arkansas. Through a partnership with Conexión de Negocios Latinos (CNL), a Springdale-based non-profit organization that focuses on supporting entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas, the program will create a new pathway for local business owners to access tailored support, resources and business development tools in both English and Spanish. CNL works to promote, educate and support entrepreneurs in Arkansas by connecting them to resources, offering bilingual programming and creating opportunities for leadership development. Through this collaboration, WFA and CNL aim to deepen their impact in the region by delivering training that is both culturally responsive and rooted in long-term economic advancement.

Participants live and work throughout Northwest Arkansas, including Springdale, Rogers, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs, Bentonville, Lowell and as far as Russellville and Huntsville. The 2025 cohort includes a diverse group of 25 women entrepreneurs working across industries such as food service, personal care, home cleaning, beauty, wellness and marketing. Running through October in Northwest Arkansas, the program includes bilingual monthly workshops led by CNL staff and local experts on topics such as taxes, marketing, digital support and access to capital. Built on CNL’s proven model, it also incorporates WFA’s statewide expertise in women-centered economic development. At the end of the program, each participant will receive an unrestricted grant to invest in growing her business.

2025 Women’s Economic Mobility Hub Cohort

2024 Women’s Economic Mobility Hub Cohort

2023 Women’s Economic Mobility Hub Cohort

Olivia Farrell Impact Award

Businesses that submit our Olivia Farrell Impact Award questionnaire will be eligible to win the prestigious Olivia Farrell Impact Award, which will be presented at the Arkansas Business of the Year Awards, presented by Arkansas Business. This award recognizes companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing women and have made significant strides in building inclusive workplaces. 

The Olivia Farrell Impact Award is a powerful tool for Arkansas companies committed to gender equity in the workplace. This program not only highlights areas where businesses excel but also sheds light on opportunities for growth and improvement. By participating, companies can gain critical insights into their practices and take actionable steps toward creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces, which is essential for fostering innovation and long-term success.

Submissions are due by December 15, 2025 to be considered for the 2026 Award.

Instructions on how to take the impact award:

The impact award is designed to be taken by a senior level executive and/or an HR Director. Please assure the appropriate person is submitting the scorecard on behalf of the company/organization. Note: the scorecard is able to be taken by any company or organization, however, it is best suited for mid-large sized organizations.

About the Olivia Farrell Impact Award: 

In partnership with a team of practicum students from The Clinton School of Public Service during the 2017-2018 school year, we created the Olivia Farrell Impact Award questionnaire which is a tool to help Arkansas businesses improve gender equity in the workplace. The questionnaire is designed to be taken by a senior level executive and/or an HR Director to gauge the current status of gender equity in their company’s workplace. In 2023, we took a year to revamp our Olivia Farrell Impact Award with help of UA Little Rock researchers, Dr. Noelle Butski and Dr. William Jergins. We knew that our questionnaire needed to be refreshed to account for new ways of living and working in a post-pandemic world and to keep up with workplace trends from the past five years. 

What changed?

• We digitized the questionnaire to make it more accessible and easy to use.
• We updated some of our questionnaire variables to better reflect global definitions of gender equality and metrics to measure those by. 
• We updated the calculations by which questionnaire indicators were weighted. This ensures a more evenly distributed weight across indicators and a more easily interpretable score.

Past Olivia Farrell Impact Award Winners:

• 2025- Arvest Bank
• 2024- Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP 
• 2022- Chenal Family Therapy 
• 2021- Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP
• 2020- Wright, Lindsey, Jennings 
• 2019- Windstream 

If you have any questions about our Olivia Farrell Impact Award, please email Maddie San Juan, Director of Strategic Initiatives, at [email protected]

Previous Olivia Farrell Gender Equity Leadership Award Winners