On October 1, 2018, Isle of Wight County Economic Development launched its workforce development initiative to become a certified (ACT) Work Ready Community. ACT is a non-profit organization formerly known as American College Testing. Follow our progress here.

Program certification, which is nationally-recognized and conferred by the Commonwealth of Virginia and ACT, signifies the job-ready skill sets of the current, transitioning and emergent workforce. This helps economic development efforts, by showing existing and future employers that our local workforce has the foundational skills to help their firms prosper.

To become certified, a county must achieve benchmarks in three areas of performance: high school graduation rate, number of National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) credentials attained in the county, and number of employers recognizing the NCRC.
 

For general information, testing locations, or if your firm wants to support this initiative, contact Kristi Sutphin at 757-365-6249 or ksutphin@iwus.net.

Isle of Wight Schools Receives Workforce Innovation Award
 

Isle of Wight County Schools (IWCS) received the 2018 Workforce Innovation Award last month from the Hampton Roads Workforce Council (formerly known as Opportunity Inc.). IWCS launched a significant redesign of the division’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program to better serve the needs of their students and to address the concerns from the business community of the shortage of highly-skilled candidates for employment. Students now have increased access to quality programs, including culinary arts, welding, manufacturing, nursing, building trades and a twenty-five acre working farm known as the Land Lab, which allows students numerous opportunities to discover their unique gifts and talents. The restructuring of the CTE program, with an emphasis on authentic experiences and industry credentials, ensures Isle of Wight County Schools is fulfilling its promise of preparing students to be college, career and life ready.

Pictured: Shawn Avery, President/CEO, Hampton Roads Workforce Council, Dr. James Thornton, Superintendent, Isle of Wight Schools, and Delceno Miles, Board Chair, Hampton Roads Workforce Council

MAICO Audiological Services Expands & Relocates
 

Maico Audiological Services, your hometown hearing center, recently expanded and relocated its Smithfield office and celebrated a ribbon cutting and grand re-opening on September 18th with the Isle of Wight Chamber. The new location is at 206B Gumwood Drive in Gumwood Drive Professional Park. Owner, Dr. Mavis Garrett, and her team provide diagnostic and rehabilitative services. Congratulations!

 

The Isle of Wight Chamber hosted a ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration for Neuropractic, which is owned and operated by Dr. Rachel Abbott. If you suffer from migraines, vertigo/dizziness, carpel tunnel, neck, back or foot pain, you may benefit from an adjustment. The practice is located at 337 Main Street in Smithfield in the building with Encore Pilates. Congratulations and welcome to Smithfield and Isle of Wight County!

Photo courtesy of the Isle of Wight Chamber.

The Isle of Wight Chamber hosted a ribbon cutting to celebrate the grand opening of Old Point National Bank in Windsor. Old Point, headquartered in the Phoebus area of Hampton, acquired Citizens National Bank and converted the branch in May 2018. Old Point also has a branch in Carrollton. The celebration included the Chamber’s first Coffee Connect networking event.

Virginia’s workforce development system is a network of 62 One Stop Career Centers, along with state and local partners, spread throughout the Commonwealth. The system serves as a crucial link between good jobs and growing businesses - a vital resource as Virginia employers are currently struggling to fill more than 150,000 high-quality jobs and face the prospect of more than 1.5 million unfilled positions over the next ten years. Residents and businesses in Isle of Wight can find Virginia Career Works centers in Franklin, Suffolk, Norfolk and Portsmouth.

The Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy in the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University offers a new opportunity for area businesses to improve their understanding of local business conditions.

Would you like to know more about business conditions in Hampton Roads? Are new orders up or down? Are businesses hiring more or less? Are suppliers meeting their promised delivery dates? If this could aid in your decision making, we have a costless new opportunity for you. All of this you can know every month, delivered straight to your inbox based on survey responses from businesses just like yours.

The Dragas Center is conducting a monthly survey of manufacturing and service firms in Hampton Roads. This free survey and report will provide insight on local business conditions, expectations, and will be made available to survey participants prior to public release.

You can automatically sign up to receive monthly updates or be a participant via web form here. Alternatively, please contact Dr. Jay Walker via email at j1walker@odu.edu for more information.

If choosing to participate you can expect to receive the results two days prior to their release to the general public. The confidential survey consists of a consistent short list of questions which should take no longer than 3-5 minutes.

FREE SMALL BUSINESS COACHING
 

Mark your calendars! Jim Carroll with the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center will be at the Isle of Wight Chamber office on the following dates for FREE and confidential small business coaching...

October 18th: 9:00 am - Noon
November 15th: 9:00 am - Noon
December 20th: 9:00 am - Noon

Call 757-357-3502 to schedule your session!

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), a nonprofit corporation, has been Virginia’s primary driver of innovation and entrepreneurship since 1985. CIT accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development and revenue generation services.

CIT will host a series of briefing sessions in southeastern Virginia to provide an overview of the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) grant program, a multi-million dollar technology commercialization grant program, that advances science and technology-based research, development and commercialization to drive economic growth in Virginia and to encourage collaboration among its institutions of higher education and partnerships between these colleges and universities and business and industry.
 

A formal request for proposals for the $2.4 million CRCF FY2019 solicitation will be issued in early October. A series of briefing sessions that focus solely on this solicitation will take place in the following locations:
 

October 15th, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. - Richmond, VA
VA Bio+Tech Park

October 16th, 10 – 11:30 a.m. - Williamsburg, VA
Sadler Center, College of William & Mary

October 17th, 10 – 11:30 a.m. - Norfolk, VA
Strome Entrepreneurial Center,
Old Dominion University

For the full event schedule and registration details, please visit www.cit.org/events. For questions, contact Robert Brooke, at robert.brooke@cit.org or to crcf@cit.org.

Featured Available Property
102 Underwood Lane, Smithfield, VA
 

Approximately 2,200 sq ft. commercial property with four private offices, a reception area, two large open areas with dividers, and two bathrooms. Ample storage and work area. Corner lot in beautiful, historic downtown Smithfield is nicely landscaped, and the exterior has been well maintained. Many potential commercial uses. Contact Bob Stanley, Green Tree Realty, 757-277-9700. MORE
 

Plan to Attend the Rural Resiliency Forum

October 23, 2018, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Frontier Culture Museum
1290 Richmond Ave., Staunton, VA 24401

The Rural Resiliency Forum's goal is to bring together public, private, and university stakeholders who are interested in improving the resiliency and prosperity of rural areas in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
 

Anticipated outcomes of the forum include:

This forum will focus on the interconnection of four broad resiliency areas: 

Who should attend: State and local elected officials, Planning district commission staff, Local government planning and economic development staff,  Public and private groups working in environmental and sustainability areas, Regional and local emergency management representatives, Farm and forest owners and related business organizations, University students and professors working in resiliency-related areas.

Register today at www.resilientvirginia.org.