Old Dominion University has partnered with the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative to win a $10 million grant from the Federal Broadband Stimulus Program for a project that will greatly expand the scope and speed of fiber optics communications networks in southeastern Virginia.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration was announced in Washington Wednesday, Aug. 18, by Vice President Joe Biden.

MBC and ODU are each investing $1.2 million in the project, to cover total costs of nearly $12.5 million. Plans call for 170 miles of high-speed Internet infrastructure to be built during the next two years as part of the national Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

For ODU, the project will provide more efficient and dependable high-speed communication technology to advance research and education on campus, and to support outreach services.

“Old Dominion University is pleased to have partnered with Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative to develop and sponsor this grant,” said the university’s president, John R. Broderick. “This is an investment that opens incredible opportunities for economic development and innovations for education program delivery in the region.”

“As an anchor institution and large consumer of broadband communication in Hampton Roads, Old Dominion will reach out to local communities and institutions to develop a collaborative effort for expanding the availability, reach and application of high-speed broadband communications.”

MBC is an independent and not-for-profit, open-access fiber optic backbone provider that already has installed 800 miles of fiber optic cable, most of it serving low-population and economically depressed localities in Southside Virginia. Tad Deriso, the MBC president and CEO, called the new project “really the linchpin of our entire strategy to help connect all of southern Virginia to the rest of the world.”

Internet infrastructure tends to support services to high-population and, therefore, high traffic areas. Many services are not available or too expensive in rural areas. That is why the federal and state governments since 2004 have supported MBC’s startup as a broadband wholesaler in an under-served Southside Virginia region that needs new economic development. The region has lost jobs in tobacco farming and warehousing, and in cotton mills and other manufacturing.

The 170 miles of new infrastructure will extend in a mesh from existing MBC network connection points in Emporia and Wakefield. It will be constructed in Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Isle of Wight counties and the cities of Suffolk and Franklin. Deriso said more than 60 community anchor institutions, such as schools, hospitals and emergency response departments, will be connected. This will allow those institutions to purchase new telecom services from MBC’s members, which are private-sector telecom providers.

But extending broadband infrastructure to underserved areas was not the only goal in MBC and ODU’s application for the stimulus grant. The new network will also deploy Infinera’s Digital Optical Network to extend the reach of MBC’s highly scalable, open-access transport network into the Norfolk market. This will enable diverse access to other MBC member networks in the region, including Intellifiber, Level3, Verizon and Qwest Communications.

“The open-access network will improve broadband communication speeds and options for the region, creating economies of scale for the cost of commodity Internet services,” said Rusty Waterfield, ODU’s assistant vice president for computing and communications services. “This provides network assets and services to help drive economic development, and enable collaboration among education, library, hospital and research institutions.”

Broderick and Deriso praised Waterfield and Wayne Jones, who directs network and communications services in Waterfield’s office, for their role in preparing the grant application. “We are grateful for the effort our team put into this,” Broderick said.

Jones said a major beneficiary of the new network’s reach into Hampton Roads will be the Eastern Lightwave Interconnect Enterprise (E-LITE) regional network, which provides high-speed connections between ODU and its Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC); the College of William and Mary; Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, and other federal agencies.

The five-year-old E-LITE, which supports research and education through 1-10 gigabytes per second connections, currently can access only one path to Internet service providers in Northern Virginia. “Right now we have a single linear path between Northern Virginia and Norfolk for the bulk of our commodity service,” Jones said. “This path is susceptible to service interruptions that can put us on our knees, such as one caused by a fire in Richmond.”

Jones said E-LITE will gain from the MBC network an alternate path to Northern Virginia, “providing system redundancies.” In addition, E-LITE will benefit from new ways to provide broader and cheaper services.

The redundant connection will give ODU’s Teletechnet distance learning program a more affordable and reliable broadband connection with community colleges in Virginia. This will be a boon to video conferencing, streaming video and other online interactive instructional delivery. The better service will also extend to ODU and WHRO public broadcasting’s delivery of educational content to public schools.

Broderick said he envisions the project with MBC also supporting the Business Gateway office that ODU opened earlier this summer to strengthen entrepreneurial ties between the university and regional businesses. “This initiative supports our recent launch of Business Gateway as a business-friendly entry point to the intellectual capital, innovative technologies and world-class infrastructure of the university,” he said.

As an example, Deriso said he could see the new broadband service allowing ODU’s VMASC to do computer simulation work with a tire research center in South Boston.

Jones suggested that new direct communications with the city of Franklin might allow ODU to take a greater role in retraining the workforce of the International Paper (old Union Camp Corp.) pulp and paper plant that closed there recently.

Outside of economic development, Jones added, the project will give ODU the opportunity to purchase more bandwidth at affordable rates, allowing students on the Norfolk campus greater freedom in accessing online applications and services. “This can be for research, as well as for recreation,” he said.

MBC’s advanced open-access fiber optic backbone network provides wholesale optical transport services, collocation, dark fiber, and tower construction/leasing. More than 55 private sector telecom providers are members of MBC. They use MBC’s open access network to expand their network reach, reduce their transport costs, enable new services and applications and drive advanced broadband services in Southern Virginia.

The cooperative’s mission is economic development, job creation and private sector investment in Southern Virginia. For more information about MBC, visit www.mbc-va.com.

From ODU News

Download the articles from the September 2010 issue of Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine:

• Part 1) Meet Hampton Roads:  Virginia’s hub of convenience, commerce, and coastal charms. History, commerce, military power, and hometown hospitality intersect in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Freedom was won here, and independence was conceived here. Rob Cross, Virginia Arts Festival’s Executive and Artistic Director, is featured as Hampton Roads’ very own music man.
• Part 2) Live:  From waterside condos to downtown Victorians, lifestyle choices abound.
• Part 3) Work:  A strong military presence sets the pace. Hampton Roads is at the forefront of the art-meets-science modeling and simulation industry, initially supported by the military and now heavily used in commercial transportation, medicine, and other fields. A hub for healthcare, too.
• Part 4) Play:  From boardwalks to Broadway, there’s no shortage of entertainment in Hampton Roads. The Sporting Life: Hampton Roads takes sports seriously. Passionate fans make up for the absence of a big-league franchise with their support for a wide range of collegiate and amateur athletics as well as minor league competition.
• Part 5) Eat:  Seafood naturally, but so much more.
• Part 6) Sleep:  The past never sleeps at these historic inns, but you can.

Link to more on “Meet Hampton Roads from the air“

In his recent Virginian Pilot Op-Ed piece, “A Vital Spinoff from JFCOM”, Jack Ezzell pointed out many of Hampton Roads’ strengths in the area of modeling and simulation.  He defined modeling and simulation as:

“Modeling and simulation refers to the process of developing a mathematical model of a real-world process, such as the flow of containers through a port facility and solving the model under different conditions. The information extracted from the model can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the real-world process and increase efficiency and profitability.”

This excellent example from the economically critical ports extends to traffic and transportation analysis.  Still other current modeling and simulation applications that should be of interest to Hampton Roads’ citizens include tidal level predictions for hurricanes and nor’easters being developed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary (VIMS); innovative designs for aircraft carrier landing systems at Northrop-Grumman Newport News (NGNN); design and development at NASA Langley Research Center (NASA-LARC), of launch pad abort systems to save astronauts’ lives in the event of a rocket anomaly during launch; design of particle accelerators and instrumentation at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab); a “virtual stethoscope”, developed at the Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in collaboration with Old Dominion University’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC), as a training device that simulates the sounds of the human body’s circulatory and respiratory systems;  and many, many others.

While modeling and simulation only approximates real-world behaviors and does not simply replace physical experiments, it does allow for extensive insights into system behaviors where full scale experimentation is not possible such as with hurricanes, or where experiments might involve human safety such as possible changes to the air traffic control system to allow the integration of drones with piloted aircraft, or are too expensive such as with NASA’s pioneering missions aimed at landing scientific instruments on other planets in the solar system.  We know that hurricane prediction is not perfect, but with the data collected and analyzed from each unique storm, scientists improve the mathematical models making predictions for the next storms better.  So it is not only the capabilities of modeling and simulation, but also the implications and limits of the model used that today’s student must learn.

What has allowed for this recent explosion of
modeling and simulation applications?

The past decade in computer and software advances – greatly increased memory and computational speed at substantially lowered cost – has made the development and exercising of such mathematical models part of the standard toolbox for today’s business people, scientists and engineers and, now, is even accessible to students in all grades K-12.  In addition to the analysis of mathematical models, the industrial applications of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) have also become accessible to our middle and high school students in curricula programs such as Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a four-year turn-key engineering curriculum led in Virginia out of ODU’s Batten School of Engineering; and extra-curricula activities such as “F1 (Formula One) in Schools”, in which open-wheel race car models are designed and fabricated using CAD/CAM software/hardware.  Even a K-5 primer on the principles of modeling and simulation, “The Shape of Change”, is available at www.clexchange.org.   This book, written by two Massachusetts elementary school teachers provides classroom activities that demonstrate such system dynamic behaviors fundamental to modeling and simulation, as mammoth herd extinction, deforestation, and disease-spread.

These broad applications often tie together the previously disparate areas of theory-based K-12 math, science, social studies, and health with the hands-on K-12 area of CTE (Career and Technical Education) – formerly known as vocational or technical education.

The Commonwealth of Virginia and, particularly, Hampton Roads is actively engaged in growing our K-12 students’ knowledge of modeling and simulation.  A few selected examples:

• In its recent 2010 revision of Science Standards of Learning (SOL), the Virginia State Board of Education added modeling and simulation as a required skill in the laboratory investigation objective (grade 6, life science, physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics) for virtually all middle and high school science students in Virginia.
• In a collaboration between the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and Virginia Beach Public Schools, Ocean Lakes High School science and math teachers have developed and piloted cross-discipline modeling and simulation curriculum that is now being spread throughout the region.
• NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with Old Dominion University and VMASC has provided workshops led by national leaders in K-12 modeling and simulation to teachers from throughout Hampton Roads and as far west as Charlottesville.
• The Virginia Governor’s Academy at Pruden Center in Suffolk in collaboration with Tidewater Community College, provides regional instruction in CAD/CAM, including rapid prototype fabrication for high school students. READ THE STORY
• NASA Langley has provided modeling and simulation training to teachers from schools throughout Hampton Roads including Title 1 schools such as Campostella Elementary School in Norfolk and the Achievable Dream Academy in Newport News.

These are just a few of the actively growing K-12 modeling and simulation initiatives in the Commonwealth and Hampton Roads.  As curricula have developed, discussions are now starting to center around embedding K-12 teachers in industry during the summers so that they may experience first-hand applications of modeling and simulation at the real-world high tech work places in Hampton Roads.  This cross-training is aimed at enabling teachers to further develop a modeling and simulation curriculum that is both relevant and contemporary to prepare our 21^st century citizens for success in the globally competitive economic realities of their world.

Photo caption:  Kids don’t question, they just flow, which is why they are often experts on computers. It seems to indicate that it is not so much the technical skills but the ability to creatively explore that gets them there. Taken at MacWorld EXPO 2007, Moscone Center, San Francisco.

Photo credit:  David Pham on Flickr

Ten professional leaders and top level executives in our community have volunteered once again to present a seminar from their respective expertise. It is a fantastic series for a very low cost that is aimed at those in our community exploring the idea of doing business with the government (especially the DoD). At the Seminars you’ll learn Strategic Planning, Marketing, Proposal Development, Contract Performance, Contract Administration and Accounting, Government Customer Expectations, Subcontracting with Prime Contractors, Profitability and Administration, Employee Relations and Small Business Resources.

Classes are held at the Peninsula Workforce Development Center, 600 Butler Farm Road, Hampton, VA on Tuesdays, September 14 – November 16, 2010 from 7:00 to 9:15 p.m. Participants will receive an official certificate of completion from Thomas Nelson Community College and 2.0 Continuing Education Units.

“I very strongly recommend this seminar. For a small investment in time and cost, it provides a unique opportunity to be exposed to the full spectrum of the business environment for contractors operating in the defense and homeland security marketplace, crossing all functional lines.” — Harry Train, Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret.)

“As I retired from the Navy, the seminar helped me understand the business. I was able to use it immediately in my job in industry.” — Rick Doran, Allied Command Transformation, Norfolk, VA

For further information or to register contact Carolyn Tarrant or Rita Bond at the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development. Phone: (757) 826.3327 or Email: ctarrant@pcfwd.org or rbond@pcfwd.org.

From Matthew James, President & CEO, Peninsula Council for Workforce Development (PCFWD)

More and more the critical issues for Hampton Roads are not only those of port development, tunnel expansion, and light rail, but broader challenges of workforce sustainability, energy resource/distribution development, and general organizational performance (Lean/Six Sigma).  These issues cut across professions and organizations, presenting significant challenges but also great opportunities for regional collaboration.

Professionals bring advanced education and proven skills to the job.  But with challenges extending across knowledge and enterprise boundaries, tasks need teams and communities.   Increasing productivity and improving economic development depends on our ability to network and function as a region as well as a traditional hierarchical organization.

Organizations all across the region are stakeholders in these challenges – either as problems to resolve or opportunities to address.  Yet no single enterprise can deal with regional workforce, energy or productivity matters as their corporate objective.  Collaboration is the approach – among various knowledge resources in Hampton Roads.

The Hampton Roads Quality Management Community (HRQMC) is sponsoring a Forum on September 10th to provide visibility to the benefits of collaboration, and to provide opportunity to both identify more initiatives for collaboration as well opportunities to make contacts with whom to collaborate.

Jeff Brooks, COO of Earl Industries, will discuss the benefits of collaboration among regional organizations – with enterprises in the ship repair business as well as those in completely different activities.

There will also be breakout sessions focused on Regionalism for Leadership and on Best Practices/Case Studies for Practitioners. And feedback will be collected to identify some ways ahead.

This will be the first Joint Meeting for Professional Societies of Hampton Roads.

Where:  ODU’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, 1030 University Blvd., Suffolk.

When:  10 September, 8:00 AM to noon.

Registration: www.HRQMC.com.  No charge.

For more information, contact Seth Pillsbury, Facilitator, at 757/377-0961 or hrqmc@verizon.net.

According to Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, 90% of a child’s brain is developed by the age of 5. Hampton Roads and Virginia is faced with three employee options: import talent, export jobs or GROW the talent here. That growth begins with early education which provides the foundation for economic productivity, responsible citizenship and strong communities.

See http://SmartBeginningsSHR.org for more information and to learn how to get involved.

Southeastern Virginia Partnership for Regional Transformation (SEVA-PORT) Innovation Index

Download and read the complete SEVA-PORT Innovation Index report.

Virginia’s Southeastern region, centered in Hampton Roads, has a long and distinguished history as an important economic center for Virginia, the Atlantic Coast, and the entire US. The region can trace its modern history back to the Jamestown Settlement of 1607, and, thanks to its unparalleled harbor and port facilities, it has long been a leading center for the US Navy and related defense purposes.

The military and defense‐related industries have always served as the region’s economic anchors, and continue to do so today. However, the 21st century Hampton Roads economy diverges from past patterns because of its growing sophistication and diversity. The region is no longer simply a “Navy Town;” it is becoming a thriving hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. Today, the Hampton Roads metropolitan area is home to more than 1.7 million people, making it the 35th largest metropolitan area in the US. The wider Southeastern Virginia region is home to more than 2.3 million.

The region’s growing economic prosperity and dynamism did not simply emerge out of thin air. It has been the result of conscious effort by regional leaders who have worked to nurture a strong, innovative, diversified, and resilient economy that builds upon long‐standing connections with defense-related industries to support innovation in a host of industries and clusters. Groups like the Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP), the Hampton Roads Research Partnership, and the Crater Regional Partnership (CRP) have long supported this mission.

Beginning in 2007, these efforts were rapidly accelerated by the creation of the Southeastern Virginia Partnership for Regional Transformation (SEVA‐PORT). SEVA‐PORT was a new regional initiative focused on the critical task of building a stronger talent base in a region encompassing 25 cities and counties located in Southeastern Virginia. Building on promising initiatives focused on local strengths in the modeling and simulation (M&S) sector, and the transportation, warehousing and distribution (TWD) industries, SEVA‐PORT sought to strengthen the region’s talent base with skills and expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics‐related (STEM) disciplines.

The SEVA‐PORT collaborative has operated for nearly three years, and has spawned a host of new economic and workforce development initiatives throughout Southeastern Virginia. This report assesses the SEVA‐PORT legacy, but is also does much more. SEVA‐PORT was an important first step, but more needs to be done.

Thus, this analysis also looks forward and assesses how the region performs in terms of building a strong base for future innovation. It contains a newly created Southeast Virginia STEM Workforce Innovation Index that tracks the region’s performance on several key variables:

1. Its ability to nurture and support a STEM‐savvy workforce,
2. Its local base of entrepreneurial companies and innovation‐based businesses, and
3. Its performance, and projected performance in the key regional business clusters of Modeling and Simulation, and Transportation, Warehousing, and Distribution.

This report concludes with suggested steps for building on the progress already made via SEVA-PORT and other regional economic and workforce development initiatives. Specifically, the region should consider the following goals as top priorities for work that will continue to support the legacy of the SEVA‐PORT effort. These initiatives include:

1. Build and Retain STEM Talent: Continue efforts to develop world‐class local education and training offerings that will serve to groom home‐grown technology talent and attract new talent to the region.
2. Nurture Entrepreneurs and Innovators: Expand local programs to support entrepreneurs and improve coordination and collaboration among existing business support providers.
3. Support Leading Clusters: Continue to invest in the Modeling & Simulation cluster and the Transportation, Warehousing, and Distribution cluster as key engines for future technology-based economic development.
4. Maintain Regional Momentum: Maintain and deepen the SEVA‐PORT regional collaboration that has created strong business and workforce links between Hampton Roads and the Crater region.

The WIRED Initiative

WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) was a Federal initiative first launched by the US Department of Labor (DOL) in November 2005. WIRED represented a significant policy shift for the Labor Department. For many years, DOL had made major investments in workforce development under authority of the Workforce Investment Act, and its predecessor laws. WIRED sought to broaden this portfolio to more actively engage workforce development organizations, especially local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), in the process of building innovation‐based regional economies.

Several themes were at the heart of the WIRED experiment. First, WIRED embraced and accelerated the concept of regionalism which argued that economic success requires that communities collaborate across traditional city, county, and even state boundaries to build stronger and more competitive economies.1

Second, WIRED advocates agreed that future prosperity could not depend on “working harder”; it instead depended on “working smarter.” In this view, a region’s future prosperity depends on its ability to nurture new entrepreneurial activity and to support innovation‐based businesses that develop or exploit new technologies and who provide better quality jobs and economic opportunities for local residents.2

Finally, WIRED sought to encourage new ways of doing business. For decades, workforce and economic development professionals had often worked in isolation.3 Workforce agencies focused on job placements and job training, while economic developers focused on recruiting new businesses and supporting existing firms. As innovation and talent development have grown in importance, regions also saw a pressing need for closer alignment between these two missions. WIRED sought to encourage these collaborations through Federal investments in regional partnerships.

The WIRED program made its first investments in February 2006, when it selected thirteen regions as WIRED 1st Generation. These regions all received $15 million in Federal funds (over three years) to help transform their regional economies. WIRED subsequently invested in thirteen 2^nd Generation regions (in January 2007), and an additional thirteen 3rd Generation WIRED regions in June 2007. Second and Third Generation regions each received a total Federal investment of $5 million.

The SEVA‐PORT project was part of the third and final generation of WIRED investments. The Federal initiative came at a good time from the region’s perspective. All three of the region’s leading WIBs‐‐‐Opportunity Inc. (based in Norfolk), the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development (based in Newport News), and the Crater Regional Workforce Investment Group (based in Petersburg)‐‐‐were already moving in the directions envisioned by the WIRED program’s designers. Hoping to capitalize on the WIRED funds, Opportunity Inc. led a region‐wide planning effort that ultimately became the SEVA-PORT Collaborative.

1 See, for example, Council on Competitiveness, Regional Innovation/National Prosperity: Summary Report of the Regional Competitiveness Initiative and Proceedings of the 2005 National Summit on Regional Innovation. Report Prepared for the US Economic Development Administration, 2005. Available at: www.compete.org.

2 Council on Competitiveness, Innovate America: National Innovation Initiative Summit and Report, (Washington, DC: Council on Competitiveness, 2005). Available at: www.compete.org.

3National Center for Education and the Economy, Under One Roof: New Governance Structures for Local Economic and Workforce Development, Washington, DC: NCEE, 2005). Available at: http://colosus.ncee.org/pdf/wfd/Under_One_Roof_FINAL.pdf.

The Purpose of this Index

This report is not designed to be a comprehensive report card on our region’s economic performance. Instead, it is the beginning of what will hopefully become a regular benchmarking exercise where regional assessment occurs on a limited, but important, series of measures. We are seeking to assess how the region is achieving its objectives of becoming more innovative, more entrepreneurial, and more prosperous.

The report should not be viewed as a comprehensive assessment, as it does not tackle many important issues, such as public safety or various measures of quality of life. Other regional entities, such as Old Dominion University’s Regional Studies Institute and the Hampton Roads Performs http://HamptonRoadsPerforms.org assessments, do produce excellent detailed annual guides of this sort. The data used in our report are more limited as we have only used measures where we can access information for each of the region’s cities and counties, along with comparison measures for Virginia and for the entire US. While each county and many local cities produce data on their individual economic performance, this report is the first to review how the SEVA‐PORT region performs as a combined economic entity.

As the SEVA‐PORT project comes to close, we hope that this Index will serve as a conversation starter—to get people talking, and, more importantly, thinking about collaborative solutions to build a more prosperous and innovative region.

The Measures

The report assesses regional innovation performance on nineteen individual measures that cluster into three broad categories:

• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Assets: How is the region performing in terms of building a pipeline of STEM talent? Are the region’s schools and training centers producing skilled and qualified workers?
  • 1A. STEM Occupations
  • 1B. High School Students Advanced Placement Courses
  • 1C. Standards of Learning Passage Rates
  • 1D. Post High School Intentions
  • 1E. STEM-Related Programs
  • 1F. STEM Related College Graduates

• Innovation Foundations: Is the region generating new ideas and new, successful entrepreneurial ventures? Are local residents taking risks and starting new ventures? Are new technologies being developed and commercialized?
  • 2A. R&D Expenditures
  • 2B. Self-Employed
  • 2C. Establishment Size
  • 2D. Inc. 5000 Companies
  • 2E. Stage II Companies
  • 2F. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grants
  • 2G. Business Start-Ups
  • 2H. High Technology Employment
  • 2I. Broadband Access

• Performance of Key Clusters: How are some of the region’s emerging industry clusters—Modeling & Simulation (M&S), and Transportation, Warehousing Distribution (TWD)—performing? Are they growing or declining?
  • 3A. Modeling and Simulation-Related Employment
  • 3B. Key Modeling and Simulation Occupations/Demand
  • 3C. Transportation, Warehousing and Distribution Employment
  • 3D. Key TWD Occupations/Demand
  • 3E. Port Volume

Download and read the complete SEVA-PORT Innovation Index report.

Photo credit:  SEVA-PORT Innovation Index report

The depth, length, and unique circumstances of the current recession will likely change the regional economy in ways still unknown. And while the financial crisis that spawned the recession may require that we reevaluate how we invest, save, and spend, the recognition of our vulnerability as businesses, workers, and a nation may in fact make us stronger. If there was ever a question as to whether we have transitioned from nation states with some autonomous control of our destiny to globalization of finance, business, and the workforce, it is now answered.

Today, business expansion is less about an advantageous location and more about the skills and capacity of the workforce. Talent, imagination, innovation, entrepreneurship—people—can drive economic expansion.

As communities that share a common destiny, we recognize that the human resource harnessed with our competitive assets (ports, federal government, tourism, and new opportunities) will determine our economic future.

Workforce Development in Hampton Roads represents a broad agenda of issues impacting our ability to guarantee a world-class workforce that is competitive in the global economy. The workforce development system (employers, training providers, workers) in our region is part of even larger systems—the state, the nation, and the world. Businesses in Hampton Roads compete with businesses globally for workers with skills and knowledge necessary to provide them with a competitive advantage. Workers in our region compete with workers around the world for jobs and the financial security that they provide. By identifying and articulating the workforce needs of business; educators, community leaders, job seekers, and individual workers are able to prepare for the opportunities made available by a changing and expanding economy.

Opportunity Inc. is a workforce development organization formed to address the region’s needs for a workforce that is “second to none,” of sufficient quantity to meet employer demand and equipped with the skills that support the expansion of the region’s economy.

It is a partnership between the elected leadership of the eight jurisdictions of South and Western Hampton Roads (WIA 16: Chesapeake, Franklin, Isle of Wight County, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Southampton County, Suffolk and Virginia Beach) and a business-led Board of Directors that includes business executives, educators, economic development professionals, labor representatives, leaders of community-based organizations, and representatives of the region’s political leadership. The organization has been tasked with providing the leadership necessary to deliver a sound workforce development strategy for our region.

Released in June, the State of the Workforce 2010 report, made possible by the efforts of Chmura Economics & Analytics and Opportunity Inc., is a look at where we are today, where we’ve come from, and what opportunities and challenges lay ahead. It provides a foundation for discussion and planning. It allows us to work towards creating our own future.

Download and read the complete State of the Workforce 2010 report.

On October 2, hundreds of girls from all over southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina will fill the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News for the annual Girl Scout Jamboree. Through programs set up by NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, the Mariners’ Museum, NASA and the Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast, girls in grades K through 12 will sail away on an adventure of discovery by exploring labs, touching artifacts and reliving personal accounts.

This year, the Girl Scout Jamboree kicks off more than just a new membership year – it celebrates a new era in Girl Scouting.  On July 6, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) released a new brand initiative and marketing campaign, aimed to modernize the 98-year-old organization.

“About one out of every 10 girls participates in Girl Scouting and that’s a tremendous number.  But that also means we have a great opportunity to grow even after almost 100 years. We have literally revamped our entire organization to appeal to that 90 percent of girls who aren’t benefiting from the Girl Scout Leadership Experience,” said Kathy Cloninger, Chief Executive Officer of GSUSA.

GSUSA also released a new campaign that speaks to what Girl Scouts are doing today.  Known by the tagline What Did You Today?, the campaign challenges and empowers girls and the community to think about how they take action each day to not only better themselves but to better their community and the world.

As with so many Girl Scout programs, a community service project will be part of the “take action” piece of the Jamboree.  Girls and their families will be asked to bring with them a canned food item to be donated to local food banks.

“The work our girls do here affects more than just our small communities; it has global reach,” Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast Chief Executive Office Tracy Keller said.  “The new campaign is a great way to show the world what we’ve been doing for 98 years, what we are doing now and what we will be doing in the future.  Taking action.”

The Girl Scout Jamboree is open to non-Girl Scouts and their families.  The program takes place from noon to 4 p.m. on October 2.  For more information visit www.gsccc.org.

About Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast
Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast, a United Way Agency, serves over 15,000 girls in grades K through 12 and over 5,000 adult volunteers in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.  Girl Scouts is the leading authority on girls’ healthy development, and builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.  The organization relies on adult volunteers who give their time and talents to make a difference in the lives of the girls.  For more information visit www.gsccc.org or call 1-800-77SCOUT.

Why do you need to attend?

• Learn how to develop a power resume with the right key words and elements.
• Find out how to build a lasting career network and conduct valuable information interviews.
• Uncover tips for maximizing the use of Monster.com and other employment search tools.
• Develop job strategies that keep you focused and successful during career transitions.
• Use Monster’s new career tools such as career pathing and benchmarking.
• Discover where to find the best career advice.
• Create a power interview through branding, advance research, closing techniques and follow-up.
• Walk away with an electronic tool kit filled with tips, web sites, strategies and techniques you can put to work immediately.

There are three workshops remaining; all run from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.:

1. August 24, 2010, City of Suffolk, at Old Dominion University (VMASC), 1030 University Blvd., Suffolk, VA 23435
2. September 15, 2010, City of Chesapeake, at Chesapeake Conference Center, 900 Greenbrier Circle, Chesapeake, VA 23320
3. October 13, 2010, City of Norfolk, at Hilton Norfolk Airport, 1500 North Military Highway, Norfolk, VA 23502

Learn more and register for these free workshops at: http://www.OPP-INC.org.