The Women's Business Center of Fayetteville at the Center for Economic Empowerment and Development is hosting a week of events to celebrate women in the community from March 7-11.
The idea for HERWeek and HERFayetteville initially came from Jennifer Gerlock,  executive director of Leadership Frederick County and vice president of marketing and communications for the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce in Maryland. She started S.H.E. Week a couple of years ago in her area. Gerlock is the cousin of Rebecca Jackson, the chief of staff and chief performance officer for City of Fayetteville. 

The idea to start the initiative in the Fayetteville community with HERWeek  became an opportunity for collaboration between the City of Fayetteville, CEED, and other community organizations. 

“We’ve been planning this since about two weeks after the fashion show... To be honest, this has kind of come together really last minute, but I think that she [Hrabovsky] knew we had the manpower to get this together,” Caitlin Chastain said.

But the quick planning hasn’t slowed down the event. In fact, CEED has rallied together community support from a variety of well-known local organizations such
as Piedmont Natural Gas, the City of Fayetteville, Women of Power Society of N.C., A Nation of Sisters, Greater Fayetteville United, Coldwell Banker Advantage, Cool Spring Downtown District, Fayetteville State University, and the Greater Fayetteville Chamber.

The event will kick off with a brunch. “Think of it as a pep rally for #HERWeek and #HERFayetteville,” Chastain said. Attendees can arrive at Cape Fear Botanical
Garden at 10 a.m. for activities, photo opportunities, and more. Each attendee will get a “swag bag” with a canvas tote, tshirt, interactive workbook.
Chastain explained that HER is more than just a pronoun in the name. For this event, it stands for Heart, Equality, and Resilience, and speakers will represent each of those facets.
North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will be the keynote speaker for the event. “It’s a huge deal... that she’s coming. What’s awesome about her is that she’s really a trailblazer in the political world and especially in North Carolina.... Not a lot of people know this, but she actually went in her younger years to apply for her first business loan, and she went to the bank and they said, ‘Sorry, you need to talk to
your husband,” Chastain explained. “That was not that long ago.”
One of the programs that CEED hosts is the Women’s Business Center of Fayetteville, an SBA program, which has created opportunity for CEED to collaborate with local vendors for the event. They will be providing coupons, promo codes, samples, stickers, and other goodies in the grab bags.
The initial brunch serves as the kickoff event, but the fun doesn’t stop there – in fact, it’ll keep going for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the events will be online.
Tuesday is HERStory Day, which will be an online campaign encouraging women to share their stories on social media. “What’s that heart piece? What’s a passion you hold close to your heart?” Chastain explained. “Tell us about a time you’ve been resilient or a woman you’ve seen who has been resilient.”
Wednesday is HERHealth Day, focusing on mental and physical health. Free workout sessions will be hosted by women entrepreneurs who own fitness businesses in Fayetteville, a doula agency will speak about maternal health, and speaker Cami Kennedy will have a mental health summit at the end on positive mindset.
Thursday is HERPitch, which will be held at the AEVEX Veterans Club Lounge at Segra Stadium. Competitors who registered by March 3 will pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win up to $10,000 from Center for Economic Empowerment and Development Capital and the City of Fayetteville
Community Development will grant up to $10,000 in prizes to those with the best pitch.

Friday will focus on HERBusiness, which will celebrate three grand openings in the region, along with the online component that will encourage people to shop with
women-owned businesses. Two of the openings will be downtown, including a new yoga studio on Hay Street next to Rude Awakening.
“I think that, here at CEED, we work with so many different community organizations and community partners, and we see a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so passionate about women entrepreneurship. How do I get involved? How do I support you?’. And so, honestly, I think this is something we want to ... continue. We want to see HERRaleigh, HERDurham, HERGreensboro, whatever that looks like,

because it’s a great way to not only share the stories of all these wonderful, amazing women in Fayetteville, but also kind of what we do and how we can help them,” Chastain said.

“Our main goal is to help entrepreneurs of all kinds – not just women – to start and scale their businesses,” she continued. Providing a variety of services, such as marketing help, microloans, financing and more, the main goal at CEED is to see further economic development in Fayetteville through entrepreneurship.

"This is a community-wide initiative to celebrate women in our community and empower them, and to brag about their successes," explained Chastain. "It is easy to uplift other women, but as a woman, we have been told don't be too egotistical or
take up too much space, and this is just a great opportunity for women to break out of that and tell their own story."
The event, while celebratory of women, is being supported by businesses that are predominantly male-owned, Chastain said. “It’s not exclusive of men by any means... It’s celebrating the women in your life for the men. For the women, it’s celebrating yourself.”

To learn more, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/herweek-fayetteville-march-7-11-2022-tickets-261897090247?aff=erelexpmlt.