Mayor Sly James commits $10K for women in business efforts
September 23, 2015 | Ashley Jost
Kansas City Mayor Sly James recently announced two initiatives to benefit women in business and in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Mayor James
James pledged $10,000 toward the Women’s Business Center‘s “WE-Lend Microloan Program,” which supports women-owned businesses in Kansas City, Mo., through funding, technical assistance and access to a financial coach. The mayor also announced additional support for the national Million Women Mentors initiative that aims to find mentors for girls and young women in STEM fields.
Both moves are apart of the mayor’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative, which James launched on March 27 with the Central Exchange, Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Women’s Center.
“If Kansas City is truly going to be the tech-hub of the Midwest, we have to continue developing the next generation of tech leaders, and that has to include women and girls,” James said in a news release.
The initiative’s goal is to find one million mentors by 2018 for girls and young women nationally who are interested in STEM careers. Mentoring, James said, helps close the already small gap in the number of women in STEM careers who leave their jobs.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
New platform GUILDit offers art entrepreneurs visibility
A new program called GUILDit to promote and support art entrepreneurship is coming to Kansas City. The program is a bi-monthly gathering where art entrepreneurs take the stage to give six-minute presentations followed by questions and answers in the hopes of crafting a stronger Kansas City art economy, and to further connections between local artists.…
HEMP brings Apple co-founder to KC as featured speaker
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, will be the keynote speaker at The Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program’s 20th anniversary celebration. Wozniak’s experience shaping the computing industry and influential product design for Apple have produced him fame as one of technology’s key thought leaders. “As a successful entrepreneur, Steve Wozniak understands the importance a mentor can make…
In time for Mother’s Day: Ovatemp wants to boost women’s fertility
The arrival of Ana Mayer’s baby girl isn’t the only thing she’ll be thinking about this Mother’s Day. Mayer — who’s among the newest founders in the Techstars-led Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator in Kansas City — will also be mulling how to further develop Ovatemp, the Boston-based ovulation tech company she leads. Ovatemp offers women…