Execute Growing Opportunities report recommendations related to economic development

Goal 4: A Strong, Creative and Diversified economy
Description

There is a distinct correlation between economic development and workforce development efforts. The Growing Opportunity report seeks to better align these efforts in order to increase the City's opportunity for success.
Why and What it Achieves

The Growing Opportunity report seeks to further align economic and workforce development efforts, thus bridging the gap between job creation/businesses and training/individuals. This is carried out through a series of outreach programs beginning with our personal business visitation program and continuing with our GO HIRE, ACE and Made In Charlottesville initiative.  
Status

During FY18, the OED continued to focus on aligning economic and workforce development efforts with the following program results:

GO HIRE -  provides wage subsidy and incumbent worker training by serving 9 city businesses in the past fiscal year. The average wage of the 10 employees served  was $16 per hour.

ACE - provides micro grants to help increase revenue and capacity of city based businesses. In the recently past fiscal year  businesses were served with $15,000 in grant funds.

VJIP Match - a commonwealth of Virginia program that helps fast growing companies that are a part of the economic base. The city provides a local match to these efforts to further assist business development. In FY18, 12 jobs were created with an average wage of $30 per hour and a total of $755,5000 in local payroll.

In addition, during FY18, the Office of Economic Development has offered eight GO training programs that provided in-demand workforce training to 45 City residents. OED staff hosted two major hiring events/job fairs that assisted nearly 100 local employers in their efforts to hire job seekers. In addition, to the job fairs/hiring events hosted by the Office of Economic Development, staff also regularly participates in the weekly job fairs held at the Virginia Workforce Center. The Office of Economic Development hosted the Women and Minority Business Expo and the Construction Contractor Meet-up, both of these events were offered for the first time.  The Downtown Job Center provided transportation assistance to 36 City residents through the GO Ride program allowing residents to be able to ride the bus to look for work and also to get to work once they obtain employment.