Two Spokane-area women are working to teach young women about the value of empowering themselves and other women to be their best selves and break through industry barriers.

Several women's leadership and business networking groups have sprung up in the Spokane area as more women seek positions of influence within their businesses or as they establish new businesses.

Since its inception in 2010, Spokane nonprofit Project Beauty Share has grown exponentially, founder and executive director Julie Farley says.

When Idaho mining mogul Levi Hutton established the Hutton Settlement in Spokane Valley 100 years ago, he set up a business model that he hoped would sustain the home for orphaned children for at least 250 years.

Clunky, outdated, and misleading are three words capital campaign manager Teresa Conway uses to describe the Spokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscular Center name, on top of being a mouthful, which recently led the nonprofit to rebrand

The Spokane Gives initiative, a program that Mayor David Condon says started as a friendly challenge to become a more compassionate city, continues to grow as it nears its fifth year of operations as a city-wide effort to improve volunteerism

The demand for aircraft maintenance technicians is at an all-time high, but Spokane Community College aviation maintenance technology instructor Andy Dodson says curriculum hasn't kept pace with technology.

As unemployment rates have dropped in recent years, the underutilized workforce appears to have declined with it, Spokane-area labor experts say. At the county level, however, it's hard to say conclusively.

Access2Experience LLC, a platform for connecting business professionals with students and teachers, has been updated and streamlined to make it easier to build connections.

Faculty at Community Colleges of Spokane say that in recent years, they've been working harder to establish relationships with employers that will enable them to train students for high-wage jobs in skilled trades.