At The Guild, lo­cat­ed at the Shoppes of Mar­aval, Richard Young is cul­ti­vat­ing more than a cre­ative space—he is nur­tur­ing an ecosys­tem where Caribbean iden­ti­ty and women’s em­pow­er­ment in­ter­sect.

Young de­scribes The Guild not sim­ply as a venue, but as a “cru­cible for women’s em­pow­er­ment”, aimed at bring­ing women en­tre­pre­neurs to­geth­er to col­lab­o­rate, el­e­vate each oth­er, and ex­er­cise agency, au­thor­i­ty, and ac­tion. “These women are not just build­ing busi­ness­es; they’re craft­ing nar­ra­tives that high­light their iden­ti­ty, their worth, and their unique con­tri­bu­tions to the cre­ative land­scape,” he said.

Last week, The Guild host­ed a gath­er­ing of women from fields rang­ing from film­mak­ing, mar­ket­ing, and cre­ative strat­e­gy, to im­age man­age­ment, art in­stal­la­tion, and Car­ni­val arts. The event high­light­ed sto­ry­telling as a tool for em­pow­er­ment, demon­strat­ing how per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al nar­ra­tives can be lever­aged to gen­er­ate wealth and mu­tu­al sup­port.

Young en­vi­sions The Guild as a space where women-led in­no­va­tion thrives. “We’ll show how each woman’s sto­ry be­comes a bea­con, help­ing oth­ers un­der­stand the im­mense val­ue they bring and how this col­lec­tive en­er­gy can re­de­fine what it means to be a woman en­tre­pre­neur in the Caribbean,” he ex­plained.

The ini­tia­tive has at­tract­ed promi­nent fig­ures across the re­gion. Denise Far­rell, a mar­ket­ing ex­ec­u­tive with over three decades of ex­pe­ri­ence in brand build­ing and event cu­ra­tion, is help­ing par­tic­i­pants el­e­vate their ven­tures from lo­cal recog­ni­tion to glob­al vis­i­bil­i­ty. Her work com­bines cre­ative in­no­va­tion with strate­gic busi­ness growth, of­fer­ing tools that al­low women to ex­pand their in­flu­ence be­yond Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Es­se­nese Sam­bury-Stur­rup, a mas­ter hair­styl­ist and ed­u­ca­tor whose work has fea­tured in fash­ion weeks and ma­jor cam­paigns, pro­vides men­tor­ship and skill-build­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties. Women who step in­to The Guild un­der her guid­ance gain con­fi­dence in their craft while re­fin­ing their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al iden­ti­ties.

Cos­tume ar­ti­san Vicky Woods brings ex­per­tise in Car­ni­val and cul­tur­al cos­tumes, us­ing tra­di­tion­al crafts­man­ship to help women con­nect with and cel­e­brate their her­itage, turn­ing each piece in­to a state­ment of iden­ti­ty and pride.

Award-win­ning film­mak­er Can­dice Lela, whose ca­reer spans in­ter­na­tion­al ac­co­lades and lo­cal im­pact, demon­strates how the cre­ative in­dus­tries can serve as a cat­a­lyst for eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion in the Caribbean. Her jour­ney re­flects a blend of artis­tic ex­cel­lence and men­tor­ship, in­spir­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of women en­tre­pre­neurs.

Busi­ness strate­gist Rhon­da Glynn, who tran­si­tioned from a ground break­ing ca­reer in avi­a­tion to con­sul­tan­cy fo­cused on fe­male en­tre­pre­neur­ship, con­tributes her ex­per­tise in brand po­si­tion­ing and women’s eco­nom­ic em­pow­er­ment.

Oth­er con­trib­u­tors in­clude Can­dice Reid-Bethel, founder of Caribbean-based dig­i­tal op­er­a­tions col­lec­tive Vir­tus­cope. Reid-Bethel helps women en­tre­pre­neurs man­age op­er­a­tional tasks so they can fo­cus on strate­gic growth and busi­ness ex­pan­sion. Or­lan­do-based artist and phil­an­thropist Jo­kee­ta John­son, known for her stained glass and met­al­work that weaves cul­tur­al sto­ry­telling in­to her art, will al­so con­tribute, bring­ing her ex­pe­ri­ence in cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion and em­pow­er­ment to the Guild.

To­geth­er, these women il­lus­trate that The Guild is more than just a space—it is a move­ment. It unites women from dif­fer­ent back­grounds and ex­pe­ri­ences, blend­ing Caribbean her­itage with cre­ative and en­tre­pre­neur­ial am­bi­tion. Each par­tic­i­pant adds a unique di­men­sion, cre­at­ing a plat­form for men­tor­ship, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and em­pow­er­ment.

By high­light­ing their sto­ries, The Guild demon­strates how en­tre­pre­neur­ship, sto­ry­telling, and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty can in­ter­sect to fos­ter growth and op­por­tu­ni­ty. “Women at The Guild are not on­ly build­ing busi­ness­es; they are shap­ing nar­ra­tives that re­in­force their val­ue, cel­e­brate their her­itage, and cre­ate path­ways for oth­ers to fol­low,” Young said.

The Guild is po­si­tion­ing it­self as a hub for women-led in­no­va­tion. Through events, men­tor­ship, and col­lab­o­ra­tion, it is fos­ter­ing a com­mu­ni­ty where Caribbean women en­tre­pre­neurs can claim their worth, lift each oth­er up, and col­lec­tive­ly re­de­fine suc­cess.

As Young puts it, the goal is sim­ple but pro­found: “Every woman who steps in­to The Guild leaves with the knowl­edge that her sto­ry mat­ters, her work mat­ters, and to­geth­er, we can re­de­fine what it means to be a woman en­tre­pre­neur in the Caribbean.”