About Oprima-1
Oprima-1’s mission is to create unparalleled value for our clients by providing exceptional customer service that simultaneously empowers bilingual adults to secure mainstream employment with family-sustaining wages.
Oprima-1 leverages a social enterprise business model to achieve a shared value return on investment that prioritizes social impact and financial sustainability.
Our leadership team has over 30 years combined experience managing initiatives that create unique opportunities for businesses to reduce their bottom line while supporting community development in Chicago.
Oprima-1 is a pioneering social enterprise that move us from a marketplace focused on the economics of business transactions to a marketplace that transforms and builds stronger communities.
Our Oprima-1 Story
Oprima-1’s origin story is not unlike many other businesses; we were created to address a gap in the customer service industry for companies with a large Spanish-speaking customer base. Where our story is unique comes next. Instead of creating another company focused solely on generating revenue via a low-cost business model, Oprima-1 was created with a second goal – improving Chicago’s bilingual community economic self-sufficiency.
During the recession, Oprima-1’s parent nonprofit, PODER:, encountered unacceptable student retention numbers in its English literacy courses. Responding to this growing challenge, PODER’s founder and Executive Director, Daniel Loftus, imagined an innovative solution – Oprima-1. In 2012, Loftus opened Oprima-1 LLC, a business process outsourcer (BPO) call center & staffing solutions company designed to offer premium services to the growing number of companies in need of Spanish-language customer service solutions. At the same time, from day one, Oprima-1 was committed to concurrently developing the local workforce by reinvesting profits into PODER’s English literacy and job skills training programs.