United Way of SWVA spins off workforce programs

The United Way of Southwest Virginia is spinning off its workforce development programs by establishing a new nonprofit, EO, to oversee them, UWSWVA announced Feb. 20.

EO, which stands for Endless Opportunity, is also Latin for “go.” The new nonprofit will manage what has been the UWSWVA’s $10 million portfolio of grant-funded workforce development programs, including the Ignite Career Expo, Ready Regions, the Rural Summit and the $23 million Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub, which UWSWVA has been building in Abingdon by converting a former Kmart.

The United Way chapter will focus on convening partners, identifying community needs and harnessing the financial resources and capacity to address those needs, while EO will be “more of a program implementer and house and deliver and manage on the cradle-to-career continuum,” from early childhood initiatives to programs to directly address labor shortages, said Travis Staton, now president and CEO of EO and interim president and CEO of UWSWVA.

EO “would be the implementer of some of those programs and initiatives so that United Way can really focus on a high level, getting resources, communicating the need, the challenges, figuring out what partners and resources need to tie together to meet those needs,” Staton said. “But EO would be the implementer of those initiatives and of those programs, so it would technically be almost like a partner agency of the United Way.”

UWSWVA will continue to serve as a fundraiser and will continue to host events like its Impact Awards. The nonprofit will also remain an organizer for disaster response efforts, according to a news release.

“Over last 18 years, we’ve just had incredible growth, and as things continue to grow and get more complex, it will help, I think, both organizations with their mission delivery, and be able to concentrate and focus on their roles in the community … so it really is about mission amplification for both organizations,” Staton said.

UWSWVA expects the transition to take six months, and EO will share its logo and brand in the coming weeks, according to a news release. EO employs 40 people, according to Beth McConkey, UWSWVA’s vice president of development and outreach, and the reorganized UWSWVA will have five full-time staff members.

A search for the UWSWVA’s new leadership will begin in March, with the intent to have Staton’s successor in place by June 30, McConkey said in a statement.

Currently, both nonprofits have the same members on their boards of directors, but over the transition period, the boards will be diversified, McConkey said, and the boards will not have a more than 50% overlap in representation.

As for the Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub, EO owns the building and will manage and operate the facility, as well as the hub’s workforce development programs. Ballad Health will manage the facility’s child care portion. UWSWVA will lease office space in the facility for its headquarters, Staton said.

The hub, which will house STEM labs for teacher training, an early childhood care and education center, workforce development and training programs and a shared services alliance for child care providers in the region, is scheduled to be complete at the end of July or early August.

Through its youth workforce programming, the center will serve 21 school districts and will have about 30,000 students a year visiting the center for learning and hands-on activities with employers.

“That requires a lot of capacity and a lot of resources,” Staton said, “and so EO will be well-positioned to focus and concentrate on that day-to-day delivery of programs and operations to drive that impact, and United Way can still function at that higher level of, ‘Well, what additional resources are needed for Southwest Virginia? What other community needs even besides child care and workforce need to be addressed? And can we raise support and resources for those causes, too?’”

UWSWVA’s programs and initiatives serve the counties of Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe and the cities of Bristol, Galax, Norton and Radford.