Title
Resolution in Support of the Redesignation of Local Workforce Development Areas 14 and 16 into a New Single Local Workforce Development Area
Purpose
PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:
In December 2019, all the Local Elected Officials (LEO’s) who serve on either the Greater Peninsula Workforce Board (Gloucester County, Hampton, James City County, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, and York County) and Hampton Roads Workforce Council (Chesapeake, Franklin, Isle of Wight County, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Southampton County, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach) were asked to support the reorganization and merger of the two workforce boards so that they could better serve the needs of both employers and job seekers in the greater Hampton Roads area. All fifteen LEO’s approved.
Discussion:
To move forward with this process, formal approval from each jurisdiction must be received in order to make a request to the Governor’s Office for official workforce development area redesignation.
Since the signing of a Collaborative Resolution in September 2018 by Delceno Miles, past chair of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, and Dr. John Olson, chair of the Greater Peninsula Workforce Board, the two workforce boards have worked together to strengthen workforce development by partnering to accomplish the following activities:
• Established the Hampton Roads Coalition for Talent through a $100,000 GO Virginia Grant;
• Formed a Joint Business Services Team that assisted over 4,000 employers and provided a single point of contact for the region’s economic development agencies;
• Implemented a joint fundraising initiative resulting in over $250,000 in new private resources to support workforce development initiatives throughout the region;
• Conducted joint Communications Committee meetings that resulted in the publication of three regional newsletters and labor market digests;
• Held a joint executive committee meeting followed by a joint full board meeting;
• Had reciprocal meeting attenda...
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