By Brian Klingenfus

The K-V Dispatch

The Southern Virginia Steering Committee of GoVirginia hosted an event Jan. 18 at Charleys Waterfront in Farmville to inform the community of the program’s plan to help grow the private sector and strengthen the workforce across the state.

GoVirginia is the commonwealth’s emerging economic development initiative. According to a press release, “the mission of GoVirginia is to encourage collaboration among business, education, and government in each region on activities that will enhance private sector growth and opportunity, economic competitiveness and alignment of workforce development programs with the needs of the employers in the regions.”

GoVirginia breaks the state up into nine regions. The Southern Virginia Region (Region 3) is made up of Patrick, Henry, Pittsylvania, Halifax, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Nottoway, Prince Edward, Lunenburg, Buckingham, Cumberland, Charlotte and Amelia counties. Martinsville and Danville are also part of Region 3.

“The difference between (GoVirginia) and the traditional economic development program is that this is a regionally-focused, community capacity building program,” explained Elizabeth Povar, principal officer of the Riverlink Group. “You build the capacity and then you market what you have to the business community so that it starts to invest.”

Almost 40 business owners and members of the community attended the event, which served as the last of three public information sessions the Southern Virginia Steering Committee hosted.

The purpose of the sessions was to inform the public of the plans and purpose of GoVirginia, and receive feedback about what the community would like to see as the region’s steering committee applies for certification as a regional council.

Charles Majors, chairman of the Southern Virginia Steering Committee, said he hopes to form a regional council for Region 3 by March. The council will ultimately report directly to the state board of GoVirginia about the progress the area is making in building and strengthening the area’s workforce.

Majors says the building and strengthening will happen only with strong communication.

“If we don’t do anything but create a way for us to communicate among the various people and groups within the region, we will benefit,” Majors said.

Farmville Town Manager Gerald Spates said he sees positive things in the plan.

“The key thing is all the community working together,” Spates said. “Somebody mentioned the need to involve the school superintendents and I think that’s important. You have a lot of kids that get out of high school that aren’t going to go to college. I think this group should gear in on workforce training for those people.”

For more information on GoVirginia, visit www.GoVirginia.org.