An Upstate-based nonprofit organization has opened an institute dedicated to helping Hispanic small business owners grow their businesses.

Hispanos Comunidad, a local nonprofit, has created Instituto Edúcate inside of a strip mall along Wade Hampton Boulevard in Taylors that is dedicated to helping Spanish speakers.

"A lot of people that come here come educated with degrees," CEO Paola Rogers said. "They're professionals in their country, and they want to be professionals here, but a lot of times, they don't have this ability because of the English."

The institute offers online classes in English at a small cost, but some classes, such as their recent social media class, are free.

"A lot of times, those families have the son working, the daughter, the aunt, so it's a family business, not necessarily they have the skills to promote their business," Rogers said.

Rogers added the institute can accommodate up to 40 people in a single class, teaching them the fundamentals of doing business in the U.S.

"They've never worked with Microsoft before, email skills, you know, how to write a good email, how to respond to a good call on customer service, so all this office array of information for daily work, we teach that," she said.

Rogers said the institute will soon offer a mental health program.

"We're always running like a rat trying to get more money and get more this and get more that, and we forget about ourselves," she said. "I think it is an important thing to have a space that is safe."

Eventually, Rogers said she hopes to expand the institute to its own facility in the near future.