Featured Entrepreneur:

Tiana Rae Burnett chose an unconventional path. She learned a lot from her experience in higher education, but her next step was not to get into the job force. There was a lot of unpacking that needed to happen once she finished her B.A. in Art History. She finished her degree with confusion, but also with focus.

For as long as she can remember, she had been focused on the same mission: to provide space and resources to creative minds focused on expression. She began her platform MADEthnic.Art as a safe space for creatives to gather, showcase, and develop their talents among a supportive and inclusive crowd in the form of pop up events.

Learning from the teachings within the Arts Management program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she was able to merge her creativity with an organized structure. This structure helped her platform evolve organically and branch off into other ventures. Studio235 was next, in partnership with Chris Joel, they took on the project of activating a massive, unused production studio and developing it into a successful Creative Resource Hub that fostered creativity and small businesses. Their model filled such a need that they quickly outgrew their space and have since relocated into Downtown Springfield. A task that would not have happened as successfully without the help from the EforAll program and extraordinary mentors.

YllwBrd Management LLC was born as a means of keeping everything aligned, from her own goals to event planning and art curation to brand building consultations to artist and project management to the legal face of the bigger picture. Today, she feels beyond grateful for where she finds herself, a photographer, curator, consultant, and business owner and someone who has learned to persevere and adapt throughout COVID 19. What the creative community needs is space, support, and resources…especially amidst a global pandemic. She has every intention to continue doing what she can to facilitate this need with her incredible team and continue to develop Springfield into The Creative Community Resource Hub this region so desperately needs.

Connect with Tiana Rae Burnett–
Business Name: YllwBrd Management LLC
Email: yllwbrd.management@gmail.com
Facebook: @TianaRaeBurnett
www.linktr.ee/trizzae

Last Month’s Featured Entrepreneur:

Brooke Bridges is a mental health speaker, certified life coach, farmer and social emotional learning consultant helping to reduce the stigma behind mental health with a focus on youth mental health. She creates an environment of trust and understanding where our youth feel heard, validated, and safe.

She grew up in Los Angeles, California as a child actress and struggled with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harming behaviors, alcohol, drugs, and other negative coping skills. Her experiences with struggle in the space of mental health allows her to understand the challenges of our youth because she was there, standing right where they may be.

Follow Brooke Bridges on Social Media–
Instagram: @thebabblingbrookemarie
TikTok: @thebabblingbrookemarie

Building Bridges SEL is a social emotional learning consultancy that partners primarily with schools and youth-focused organizations to teach social emotional learning through storytelling. Building Bridges SEL uses the framework of scientifically backed SEL as well as clinically researched DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) to develop a curriculum that not only teaches about social, emotional, and mental health challenges and skills but also allows them to process and understand these concepts through storytelling.
Building Bridges SEL also works with adults implementing the same skills as the youth curriculum but designed for specific adult challenges. For instance – using SEL to promote a healthy workplace climate. Building Bridges SEL also works as a Life Coaching consultancy, working with individuals to improve their own self-reflection in a more intensive way.