In the Community
Strengthening the region's economy
The community foundation supports regional collaboration to ensure all residents have opportunities for success. This support had led to the creation of new jobs and about $5 million additional in our region, in part through the efforts of ReInvent Hampton Roads.
At the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, we envision a thriving community for all and economic success plays a critical role in that.
The community foundation supports regional collaboration to ensure all residents have opportunities for success. This support had led to the creation of new jobs and about $5 million additional in our region.
One way the community foundation helps enhance the region’s economic competitiveness is through funding the nonprofit Reinvent Hampton Roads, which launched in 2016.
Its mission is “to create a strategy that embraces both the traditional and emerging employment sectors in Hampton Roads. We will improve the region's economic profile by attracting new entrepreneurs, innovative industries, and high-paying employment opportunities.”
Since inception, the efforts of ReInvent Hampton Roads have helped create at least 200 new jobs paying salaries well above the average wage, such as 24 new digital shipbuilding jobs.
Since inception, the nonprofit has helped create at least 200 new jobs paying salaries well above the average wage, such as 24 new digital shipbuilding jobs.
Reinvent Hampton Roads also played a key role in transforming the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, which creates the first comprehensive regional economic development program for the region.
Reinvent Hampton Roads’ latest initiative involves The GO Virginia program, which fosters private-sector growth and job creation through state incentives for regional collaboration between business, education, and government. Reinvent Hampton Roads serves as the designated support organization for GO Virginia Region 5, providing administrative support and serving as the conduit that connects available resources to the region’s priority economic growth opportunities.
The area served by GO Virginia Region 5 includes nineteen localities in Hampton Roads and Virginia’s Eastern Shore. With Reinvent Hampton Roads’ support, Region 5 has received ten GO Virginia grants totaling more than $5 million. Along with more than $8 million in local matching funds, the money has helped support innovation and entrepreneurship, talent development, site readiness and infrastructure.
Collaboration is a key factor in obtaining state funding as well as regional prosperity. For example, Region 5 and Region 7 in Northern Virginia worked together to successfully compete for $2.4 million in state funding to support a K-12 Computer Science Talent Pipeline Project to be piloted in the Chesapeake and Loudoun County Public School Divisions.
Reinvent Hampton Roads serves as a convener and will continue to lay the groundwork for greater economic competitiveness for the region.
To learn more, visit www.reinventhr.org
