“Share your success and help others succeed. Give EVERYONE a chance to have a piece of the pie. If the pie’s not big enough, make a bigger pie.”
I believe Dave Thomas, who I quote above, would be very proud of Richmond, Kentucky. Over the past 15 years, our community has grown dramatically. New businesses have been started. Established businesses have found innovative ways to succeed. And we have supported and shared in their successes – many have taken a piece out of this pie – and I think we can all agree, our pie keeps getting bigger!
As a Chamber, we embrace this excitement and continue to create further innovation within our community. We have made great strides in becoming a work-ready community and have enjoyed success in our initial year of implementation. We will continue to join city and county leaders, Madison County Schools, Eastern Kentucky University and local entrepreneurs in replicating success, creating demand for local products and services while helping develop the talents and skills of local workforce and future leaders. As the home of a surging regional university sitting astride one of this continent's most heavily traveled thoroughfares, Richmond and Madison County have opportunities others can only dream about. And we intend to help you make the most of them.
Our focus and mission are to embrace collaboration to enhance opportunities for all. These efforts include creating educational and professional opportunities for our high school and college graduates and the employers who need them. Our efforts are producing better-prepared employees at all levels of business and industry.
This year, the Madison Business and Education Partnership Committee has started the Business-Educator Exchange Program which will pair four Madison Central High School teachers and four Madison Southern High School teachers with business partners who spend four hours in the classroom with each teacher who will in turn spend four hours in the workplace observing skills in action. They will gather real-world examples of how employees use math, science, communication and teamwork skills to produce world-class results.
Through such efforts, all of our businesses can successful and our community will grow.
Mendi Goble, Executive Director