Southwest Va. Big Deal: EO hub offers regional workforce development

The workers and managers at Food City in Abingdon can see the future by stepping out and looking to their left toward a former Kmart.

The old Kmart has been redeveloped by EO, a nonprofit that spun off from the United Way of Southwest Virginia, into the 87,000-square-foot Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub. Construction started July 2023, and the hub opened in October 2024.

The redevelopment project cost $26.5 million. Eighty percent came from the private sector, including $7.85 million from Food City and $4 million each from Ballad Health and the Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s Industrial Revitalization Fund paid another $5 million.

The hub aims to create 100 jobs over the next three years — 70 in the child care center run by Ballad Health, and 30 on the workforce side of the facility. Already, EO and its partners have created 68 jobs through the hub.

The hub includes 25,000 square feet dedicated to early childhood care and education. That facility includes 300 slots, helping fill a child care gap as more jobs return to the office. Another 60,000 square feet is used for students to explore potential careers through partnerships with employers, universities, community colleges and regional school systems. The area also includes training labs for students and teachers, equipped with robotics, 3D printers and more.

Perhaps most striking is the “Career Commons” — a 25,000-square-foot mall-type area featuring 20 spaces built out to create a simulated city. Students can interact with the space at various grade levels.

“We have seventh-grade programming happening right now,” says Kristy Worley, EO’s vice president of programs. “They come in and get to actually do the hands-on career simulations in each of these labs.”

Food City, for example, offers a simulation of its stores, complete with a checkout, a coffee bar and opportunities to stock shelves. The space next door offers a glimpse of Food City’s warehouse operations, including truck driving and forklift simulators. These experiences prepare students for employment at Food City, but also at other warehouses, distribution facilities and even the Volvo Trucks factory a bit north in Pulaski County.

“Just three exits up is the distribution center for [Food City parent company] K-VA-T Food Stores, and they’ve got more than 1,200 employees up there,” says EO President and CEO Travis Staton.

Nineteen of the 20 spaces in the Career Commons are already booked. Tourism and hospitality, computer science, retail, transportation, logistics, automotive, finance, health care and electric utilities are represented in spaces sponsored mostly by private companies, as well as state agencies like the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“We’re working to bridge the gaps between worlds of learning and worlds of work,” Staton says. “We have hands-on learning activities for students as early as third grade to learn, seventh graders to test drive and get a feel, 10th graders to understand the importance of financial literacy, and in 11th grade working with employers on career development, resume writing, mock interviewing and intern placement.”

The hub anticipates foot traffic of roughly 30,000 students per year. So far, 26 schools in 13 counties have partnered with the hub, but Staton says there are plans for more.

The hub has only been open since mid-October, but it’s already drawing praise from regional business leaders.

“Not only will our associates continue to utilize the child care center, but we’re also excited to have two mock career centers located in Career Commons,” says Steve Smith, president and CEO of K-VA-T Food Stores. “We are extremely fortunate to have a multi-use facility of this caliber located here in the heart of our community.”

The hub also is training teachers, child care workers and others to work with children. The goal was to place at least 100 people with jobs in early child care. By early December 2024, the hub had already surpassed 200 placements, Staton says.

“We are the Southwest Virginia hub for early childhood,” Worley says. “We currently work with 218 child care providers; that’s roughly around 560 classrooms and about 1,400 teachers that we serve, train and upskill.”

EO officials hope the hub will become a statewide model for providing child care and shaping workforce development to more directly meet the needs of employers.