La Cana

Daniela Ancira is a lawyer and holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democracy by the Latin American Faculty on Social Sciences (FLACSO – México).

She is cofounder and CEO of La Cana, a social enterprise dedicated to training and providing employment opportunities to incarcerated women and creating social reintegration programs in prison, in order to reduce recidivism and delinquency rates in Mexico. She has worked as a Human Rights lawyer defending victims at a national and international level, and has collaborated with several organizations in bringing human rights violation cases before the United Nations and the Inter American Human Rights Commission. She is a member of the Technical Working Group of the UNODC to create the United Nations Advanced Standards for Mexico’s Penitentiary System. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Future Leaders Connect (British Council) Fellow, and in 2018 was named Citizen of the Year.

In a penitentiary system where there are no effective training and employment programs as a means for achieving inmates’ reintegration into society, La Cana is a social enterprise that elevates opportunities for women in prison by providing access to decent, formal, and fair remunerated work. Believing the solution is not to build more prisons but to incorporate a viable economic, social and educational strategy that helps women escape the structural poverty that forces them to turn to crime for survival in the first place, La Cana elevates humanity through an effective and multidisciplinary social reintegration model. Along with job training opportunities and decent work, our project provides psychological support and workshops that contribute to their mental health and wellbeing. Empowering incarcerated women and contributing to their economic independence and resilience process helps them build a life away from crime and violence, reducing recidivism and crime rates in our society.

The number of women in Mexican prisons, many of whom resort to criminal activities as a source of income and a way to get out of poverty, inequity, violence, and exclusion, has increased in the past years. 

Currently more than 10,000 women, aged between 18 and 45 years old, live in prisons that lack training and employment programs to achieve social reintegration. Nationwide, 66% of the prisons do not have access to these opportunities for incarcerated people. This encourages prostitution, drug sales, extortion, violence and corruption in prison and reoffending upon release. At a national level, 1 out of 4 people who are released, go back to prison, 52% of those during the 2 years following their release.

Most of imprisoned women have a low level of education, belong to marginalized communities, are gender violence victims or come from crime-prone environments. 80% are moms and sole providers of their homes. These characteristics combined with social stigma make it almost impossible to find a job in freedom, affecting further their self-esteem, perpetuating the cycle of marginalization and increasing recidivism, which prevents us to have a more inclusive and peaceful society.

La Cana is a social enterprise that works with women in prison, in order to improve their quality of life and achieve their reintegration into society. Our mission is to transform detention into a time of learning, so our prisons become places of opportunity rather than punishment. 

Our holistic reintegration model consists on 6 focus areas: (i) Job-training activities: We create opportunities for decent, formal, and fair remunerated work for women in prisoN, as a way for them to earn a living away from crime and violence; (ii) Mental Health: We implement workshops where we promote empowerment, self-healing, the development of social skills, and work with the problems derived from life in prison; (iii) Activities in arts, culture and sports; (iv) Follow-up after release: through reentry support, psychological care and the opportunity for employment; (iv) Public policy actions to guarantee inmates’ labor rights, and (v) Human Rights Defense to free the wrongfully convicted. 

La Cana has also consolidated a powerful brand where throughout the thousands of crafts and handmade prison products sold monthly through different sales channels, we tell empowering stories of incarcerated women that are turning their lives around. 

We currently impact the life of more than 350 incarcerated women in four prisons in Mexico. Throughout the 6 years we’ve been working with this population, we have learned their concerns, being mainly the need for a second chance to change their lives. 

They are moms, daughters, wives, raised in areas of high marginalization with limited opportunities which had a negative effect on their upbringing. They have a low level of education and limited access to basic and secondary services. Many of them have repeatedly been victims of violence and have been abandoned by their families or by the very people who got them involved in crime in the first place. 

Working in La Cana, they earn sufficient income in order to buy products that satisfy their basic needs in prison -clean drinking water, food, personal hygiene products- and to support their families as many of them are the sole provider in their families. We address depression and anxiety, two of the most common mental diseases among incarcerated women, this enhances empowerment, resilience and social reintegration by exploring and building their self-concept, developing their social skills, reestablishing their self-confidence and generating new interpersonal bonds to improve their quality of life. 

We Elevate opportunities for women in prison by creating opportunities to providing access to decent, formal, and fair remunerated work. Through the more than 20,000 handmade products that we sell per year and that are handmade by incarcerated women trained in our workshops, we tell the stories of these women and the problems of the prisons, managing to raise awareness, create empathy and social commitment, to reduce stigma and social discrimination.

Also, our project drives action to solve the most difficult problems of our world: poverty, violence, gender inequality, poor education ad unemployment; according with the Sustainable Development Goals.

It all started while we were in Law School and we had the opportunity to visit the female prison “Barrientos”, in the State of Mexico. 

We were able to see the undignified conditions under which women were kept. But above everything, we were able to listen to the story behind each woman, allowing us to understand that the problem of insecurity can’t be solved simply by isolating and separating, but by attending and addressing the structural causes that let women to end up in prison. We realized that prisons have not had effective results because they haven´t focused on stopping people from committing crimes, nor solving the problem from the inside. 

This is how La Cana was born, as a project to bring productive and job-training activities into prisons as a way for women to achieve their reintegration into society and build a life away from crime and violence upon release. 

Visiting prisons when I was in College, taught me a life changing lesson: the only difference between me them and me is that I’ve had opportunities: education, supportive family, healthy environment and the opportunity to choose what I want to do with my life. I learned that most women in prison are there because of the violent backgrounds they come from and the lack of opportunities while growing up. 

I never thought I could have connected so much and establish such caring relationships with them. This powerful experience drives me to give back by creating opportunities so other women know that they can live a different life. Now, my personal mission is to empower women so that they can create a life they love, with self-worth, knowing that they can be whomever they want to, and that dreams can be achieved.

 I feel so passionate about this cause because I learned that there are no differences between human beings, some of them just need the tools to create a better future, because no one has taught them how before. Create a community where women feel accompanied, supported, and know that we have our backs, makes me feel fulfilled.

I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with victims and accompany them through their process of achieving justice. My experience working with Human Rights issues has been from different positions: As a member of the Technical Working Group of the UNODC, where I contributed to create the United Nations Advanced Standards for Mexico’s Penitentiary System, and as a lawyer I’ve represented victims of torture and enforced disappearance in national and international courts. The sum of this experiences, with my academic training in Human Rights and Democracy have allowed me to develop a comprehensive vision of the problem and its solution making use of the legal resources that exist to ensure respect for Human Rights, and influence public policies. Also, it has let me to understand that insecurity can’t be solved by leaving people behind, but by providing equal opportunities and access to justice for everyone.

Beyond academics, thanks to the experience gained for more than 8 years working and meeting incarcerated women, and visiting more than 20 prisons throughout Mexico, I have become aware of their reality, the problems that surround them and their needs as women and as human beings. Also, the challenges of this project have developed in me leadership skills, empathy, sorority, assertive communication, persistence, courage, and tenacity in the face of adversity.

To ensure success and sustainability as a social enterprise, I have continued my education in other areas and achieved certificates in Business, Leadership, communication and policy skills, Digital Marketing and Writing, Storytelling for Business.

When I started working in prisons, at first it was really difficult to get the inmates to commit to our programs, since I was only 22 years old and some of them were involved in some of Mexico's largest criminal organizations. I wanted to start knitting and embroidery workshops, as a way for them to earn a new skill with which they could earn money from. I brought them material such as yarn and they stole it, or resold it, causing us to spend a lot of money without earning any profit. I understood the responsibility I have to earn the trust of the incarcerated women, who in most cases come from oppressive and violent environments and have a hard time trusting others. So, I kept going every week to the workshops and started making them realize that this was a real job and they had to truly commit if they wanted to participate. We started working with only 3 women. Today, we have replicated that same program in 4 prisons in Mexico and have worked with more than 350 women. 

Before founding La Cana, I worked in one of Mexico's most prestigious law firms. I had a very high salary. I was in a great job where there seemed to be a really promising future for me. However, since the moment I stepped foot in a prison, I knew I couldn't look away, and that I could do something to change their situation. I finally decided to quit my job and –out of nothing- start my own project working with women in prison. Now, after 6 years we are the social enterprise that employs most incarcerated women in the country, with a team of more than 160 women working in 4 prisons. We sell + 20,000 thousand products per year and we work hand-in-hand with important allies such as the United Nations.

I think this decision highlighted my potential as a leader, because a leader is the one who follows his or her dreams and inspires others to do the same, despite what others think or the short-term consequences. This decision was taken based on what I wanted to do in life, my passion, convinced that one day my dream would become someone else’s reality.

Our project is innovative because no one (in developing countries) bets on women who are or were in prison, there are no other enterprises or NGOs that give high-quality training and decent work opportunities within a holistic social reintegration model.

Some NGOs provide only an emotional or charitable support, but the problem of employment, training and poverty is not solved. Also, some companies offer low-paid and low-quality jobs in undignified conditions. And no one supports them in the process of obtaining their freedom once released.  

Something that differentiates us from other projects is that our intervention is carried out over time, that is, it is not a single intervention, on the contrary, the work that women have is permanent and they can count on it for months and even years. Likewise, the mental health intervention they receive leaves positive outcomes and a change for life.

By selling more than +20,000 products a year, we tell the stories of these women and the problems of the prisons, managing to raise awareness, create empathy and social commitment, to reduce stigma and social discrimination. We’ve partnered with designers and companies to include these women in their manufacturing processes, creating value and a social cause to their products done by women seeking a second chance. The same happens with companies that employ women, through us, with criminal records. They give themselves the opportunity to trust and get excellent employees. 

The problem of Mexican prisons is the lack of effective social reintegration programs, during and after prison, including training and employment programs to eradicate poverty and recidivism.

Our holistic model consists of 6 programs, whose immediate outputs are: 

• Training & Employment: We train women in different knitting, sewing, embroidery and macramé workshops, among other crafts, as a way for them to learn a skill with which they can earn an income away from crime and violence, allowing them to provide enough to meet their basic needs inside prison and support their families while serving a sentence. 
• Mental Health and Educative Workshops: Through art psychotherapy and human development workshops we contribute to improving their self-concept and self-esteem, thus they improve their social skills, the management of their emotions and the stress that seclusion causes. 
• Advocacy on Public Policies: We promote the regulation, guarantee, and protection of prison labor and the improvement of their reintegration systems to achieve the exercise of the human rights of incarcerated women deprived, we make visible and sensitize decision-makers to the problem.
• Legal Support: We evaluate and defend cases of women who have suffered human rights violations in their legal processes, and help them achieve justice.
• Follow Up in Freedom: We accompany them through their re-entry process by regaining their legal identity documents, helping them access savings fund derived from their work inside prison, and channeling them with our partner companies so that they obtain formal employment away from crime.

In the medium term, we improve the quality of life of incarcerated women. They create a life plan, become economically empowered and independent women through honest work, social skills, professional tools and emotional intelligence; all this through the involvement of different actors: government, companies and society.

In the long term, we manage to intervene in a holistic way so that women live an effective Social Reintegration process.

At a global level, our impact translates into a more peaceful, just, and inclusive society pursuant to human rights and with a common vision towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Over 6 years we have improved the quality of life of more than 350 women. We currently impact the life of 150 women and their families (more than 142 persons, 80% are children)  in 4 prisons in Mexico who correspond to the 1.28% of the female prison population nationwide, and 8.19% of the female prison population in the State of Mexico. 

Under the Social Impact Franchise (SIF) model, in one year we will open our scope to 2 new prisons impacting 50 more women (25 per franchise or prison) and in 5 years we intend to open 5 new prisons, impacting 125 women (25 per franchise or prison). By the end of 5 years we will be impacting more than 325 women and their families.

This year we will consolidate the process to become a Social Impact Franchise (SIF), guided by Feher Consulting a firm of experts in the matter. 

The Social Impact Franchise (SIF) applies the principles of commercial franchising, to grow and multiply successful social enterprises. By doing this, it is possible to multiply the social impact of proven models. The SIF is a business model that uses and implements the franchise model to clone the programs that resolve or diminish social issues, and can be measured in economic benefit and the number of people impacted by the social enterprise.

In 2021 we will be ready for the sale of the first SIF in another state of the Mexican Republic. During that same year we will focus on monitoring and evaluating the model, at the same time that we will continue to look for new franchisees so that in 2022 we can consolidate the sale of 2 more SIF’s and in 2023 we will expand to 3 to 5 SIFs.

Our goal is that this model could be replicated in every prison where females live in poverty in order to eliminate the barriers that imprisoned women face to obtain an effective social reintegration program.

We want to encompass the rest of the country, as well as Central and South America which have similar conditions in their penitentiary systems.

The barrier that we could face and that would not allow us to reach our goal would be raising enough investment to scale our Project to new prisons. This could happen, due to the low percentage of companies and entrepreneurs that currently invest in prisons to grant employment, this is mainly due to high stigmatization and low confidence in the process of social reintegration of people in prison.

On the other hand, in Mexico’s political agenda, the issue is not very visible nor generates much public interest. This has a consequence that prison labor is not clearly regulated, and causes business people uncertainty whether to invest under these conditions. However, in La Cana we actively advocate for prison reforms and have recently presented an initiative before the Senate to legislate prison labor.

Legally and institutionally, we have the recognition of the corresponding penitentiary authorities and public institutions. This, thanks to the work that La Cana has carried out with great prestige and results. 

We are addressing the initial capital investment barrier by searching for and applying for financing, mentoring and support, mainly with organizations and impact-investing funds willing to support social projects, interested in promoting job opportunities, gender equality, access to education and have a vision of a more just and peaceful world.

According to our financial projections, the Social Impact Franchise strategy itself will be the solution to expand our project to more prisons and at the same time provide us of an additional source of revenue (through royalties and franchise fees) to achieve 100% sustainability.   The stigmatization and low confidence of investors will decrease when pioneering impact-investment funds or businesspeople invest in our franchise model, so that they can be spokespeople for the success they have in investing in La Cana and it’s women

• United Nations Office against Crime and Drug: Selected us to be part of the Technical Committee to establish the UN's standards for the Mexican Penitentiary System (UNAPS). 
• British Council's Future Leaders Connect Program: We consolidated a program to prevent gender violence for women in prison. 
• The BID Lab, along with their partners at Roots of Impact, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, New Ventures and Ashoka, after a very meticulous process of selection and auditing, chose La Cana to take part in their program SIINC (Social Impact Incentives) and boost our growth and expansion through the Social Impact Franchise model. 
• Institute for Parenthood and Responsible Education: Partner to provide tools for women so that they could guide the lives of their children towards maturity to face life independently.
• Mexican Senate: We submitted an initiative to reform the National Criminal Enforcement Law to regulate and guarantee prison labor. 
• Mexico City and State of Mexico’s government: We signed a collaboration agreement so that we could have full access to prisons to implement our programs. 
• Creating your Future: Together we seek to strengthen and develop fundamental techniques and skills for competitive performance in the formal labor market.
• La Chispa and Anáhuac University: Alliance to create a project for women to receive all the necessary knowledge in entrepreneurship in order for them to start a business.

Our income comes from the sale of products handmade by incarcerated women, thanks to the training workshops on weaving and embroidery techniques that we impart weekly in each prison. The products are sold through 7 channels as follows: Website / online store 13% (national and international shipping), Consignment shops (in 11 states) 7%, Bazaars 6%, Customized orders (companies, universities, individuals, gifts) 23%, own point of sale Santa Fe Mall (largest in Latin America) 29%, Collaborations (alliances with companies) 7% and Other (bazaars, events, etc.) 17%

The total income generated allows us to reinvest resources to diversify production and increase the number of workers who can benefit from this productive activity, to pay their expenses in prison and help their families; as well as carrying out complementary workshops that contribute to their social reintegration process.

We finance our operation in a combined way, (i) through the sale of the handmade products by the women with work with us, which are sold at a national and international level, through our online store and various points of sale; we sell more than 20 thousand products a year, we have business alliances with more than 10 companies/designers for whom we manufacture their products. (ii) Through seed capital and raising investment through debt; (iii) donations and grants; and in a near future, (iv) royalties and franchise fees.

Seeking to be able to impact massively, ensure the permanence of our project and its sustainability, we are in the process of becoming a Social Impact Franchise (SIF). Our sales plan contemplates selling the first franchise by 2021, in 2021 two more and in 2023 from 3 to 5 SIF’s from which we will receive “franchise fees” as an extra source of income.

On the other hand, this year we started with the strategy of searching for new investors. Our goal is $ 150,000.00 USD of investment and we offer a ROI of 26.25%, almost 4% of profit above inflation, about 2% more than what the government or any bank debt bonds offer, with annual liquidity.

Our income comes from the sale of products handmade by incarcerated women, thanks to the training workshops on weaving and embroidery techniques that we impart weekly in each prison. The revenue in the last 12 months was around 220K USD. And our forecast for 2020 is 250K USD.  

The products are sold through 7 channels as follows: Website / online store 13% (national and international shipping), Consignment shops (in 11 states) 7%, Bazaars 6%, Customized orders (companies, universities, individuals, gifts) 23%, own store Santa Fe Mall (largest in Latin America) 29%, Collaborations (alliances with companies) 7% and Others 17%.

The total income generated allows us to reinvest resources to diversify production and increase the number of workers who can benefit from this productive activity, to pay their expenses in prison and help their families; as well as carrying out complementary workshops that contribute to their social reintegration process.

On the other hand, on the last 12 months we have received (i) $41,406.05 USD on donations; and (ii) $11,463.38 USD on grants. 

We are looking to obtain 150K USD in debt, by the 4Q 2020, payable through the following 5 years, offering a 26.25% Return on Investment (ROI).

We will be investing in: (i) Online Store: Refresh and renew our online shop, integrate a more functioning e-commerce service to optimizing conversion rate from 0.8 to 3. Double the channels sales $90,000.00 MXN (ii) E-commerce team: Hire a specialized team to manage the e-commerce platform. Our goal is maximize the capacity of the e-commerce platform $360,000.00 MXN. (iii) Machinery: Buy 10 knitting machines and 10 industrial embroidery machines to reduce the manufacturing time of the products and with it, the production costs $300,000.00 MXN (iv) Software: Implement point of sale system and a ERP. Reduce the data capture time for sales and administrative tasks to increase it’s accuracy $500,000.00 MXN (v) Digital Marketing: Increase the presence, diffusion and sales in social media. Create, Instagram, Facebook SEO and Google Ads strategies and campaigns. Boost online sales strategy, reach markets in other countries $1´000, 000.MXN (vi) Franchises Implement and consolidate a franchise model with social impact. (Manuals, collaborators, and expenses) Replicate the business model and sell it to franchisees to expand and replicate the social reach of La Cana to several prisons and states along Mexico $960,000.00 MXN.

Already we have a $150,000.00 USD grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation through their program SIINC (Social Impact Incentives).

The total budgeted expenses of 2020 are 245K USD

La Cana seeks to benefit from The Elevate Award for several reasons: To have the resources to implement and consolidate our franchise model with social impact (manuals, collaborators and expenses) which would enable us to replicate and expand our model to many other prisons and generate financial resources to reinvest and also invest in our institutional capacity building.

Having resources like tailored media and a personalized marketing campaign offered by the Elevate Prize, would be of great help to break down the barriers of social stigma and limited public confidence in social reintegration processes, changing people's perceptions and reaching out to those actors who do not know us yet.

Reaching more investors, donors, collaborations and civil society will allow us to develop strategic alliances, attract more investment and fulfill our mission of raising awareness of the conditions under which incarcerated women live and how it is up to us a society, whether these women are simply marking time or working hard and having the opportunities to turn their lives around. 

We believe professional management, mentorship and coaching in issues such as monitoring and evaluation, to be very valuable to measure and communicate more precisely the impact of our program, as well as E-commerce and Digital Marketing guidance would be extremely valuable to have a greater presence, dissemination and sales on social networks.