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Tag: Steve Radley

Christina Long, NetWorked – Digital Ready

Are you ready? Are you ready to advance your business in the race to a modern digital environment? Today we’ll learn about a new digital, online initiative to support rural businesses.

Logo for Networked - Digital ReadyLast week we met Christina Long, strategic director for NetWorked – Partnership for Community Investment. She facilitates monthly online convenings during which participants can learn about resources to help businesses and communities. The get-togethers are conducted on Zoom and archived on the NetWorked website.

“We are bringing networks together that may not typically have a way to naturally connect,” Christina said. “We learn about resources and information that we can take back to our communities to activate strong community changes.”

Monthly topics have included the Kansas Community Investment Fund, the Kansas Leadership Center transformation grants and programs, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Healthify and Pathway grant, food access and food insecurity as addressed by the Rural Grocery Initiative, and the Kansas Healthy Food Initiative.

Along with NetWork Kansas and other partners, these programs have assisted and invested in small businesses across the state – even in communities as small as the store in the rural community of Mildred, population 28 people. Now, that’s rural.

Now there is another, brand new resource to help small businesses. It was highlighted during a recent online session.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Steve Radley, NetWork Kansas

What can we grow across Kansas? Wheat? Industrial hemp? Wind turbines?  How about jobs and businesses? Today we’ll meet an organization which is devoted to the growth of entrepreneurship and small businesses across our state. It’s today’s Kansas Profile.

Last week we met Steve Radley. As a personal project, he produced a film about rural Kansas. His ideas for that film sprang from his work as president and CEO of this organization known as NetWork Kansas.

Steve Radley

In 2004, the Kansas Legislature passed the Kansas Economic Growth Act. That law, among other things, established the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship which now does business as NetWork Kansas.

Steve Radley and his friend Erik Pederson had previously been in business together in Wichita. They experienced the ups and downs of launching and growing successful businesses.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Steve Radley, Rural Road

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, population 4 million. Yates Center, Kansas, population 1,417. These two contrasting towns do have something in common: They are each a site for film-making. Today we’ll meet a Kansas entrepreneur who recently produced a film highlighting rural Kansas. It’s today’s Kansas Profile.

Last week we met Jessica Busteed of Yates Center’s Cornerstone Bakery, site of a recent video shoot.

Steve Radley is the writer, producer and director of this new film. He is president and CEO of NetWork Kansas.

From the film, ‘The Rural Road.’

Steve was born in Wichita, grew up in Oklahoma, and went to college at OU. His grandparents had a farm near Yates Center. That farm is still in the family. It’s where Steve and his siblings gather on holidays. “I’ve been bird-hunting on that place since I was five,” Steve said.

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