Travis Staton donned a hard hat Thursday and proudly showed off some of the features — from exploration labs to a cafe — of the first-of-its-kind Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub taking shape in Abingdon.
Construction of the $25.5 million project started last July, and it is on schedule and about 85% complete, according to Staton, who is president and CEO of EO, formerly the program arm of United Way of Southwest Virginia.
The 87,000-square-foot facility, once a Kmart store in a shopping center off Interstate 81’s Exit 17, is currently a busy construction zone teeming with workers and heavy equipment. Construction is expected to be completed in July with the opening set for August.
The hub will house an early childhood development center operated by Ballad Health, a STEM labs for teacher training, and a shared services alliance designed to strengthen existing early child care and education providers through back-office support and group purchasing power, according to a news release from EO.
The idea for the facility came from frustration at trying to put on a career expo for students at a rented facility over two days that offered too little time for students to explore their interests.
Staton said he and his team had to start from scratch when they began to put plans together for the hub because they soon realized there’s nothing else quite like it, he said.
It has drawn interest from across the state, including from Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Staton said he wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a model program that others emulate.
One side of the building, about 25,000 square feet, will be dedicated to child care for infants through the age of 4. That’s because one of the barriers to employment in Southwest Virginia is the gap in quality child care.
It will have room for 300 children and will feature security measures similar to those found in schools, with people having to buzz in and out, according to Staton.
In addition to classrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and laundry room, it will offer 10,000 square feet of outdoor play space complete with a bicycle track and playground equipment.
But the main focus of the center will be workforce training to answer a need in Southwest Virginia and to try to boost its labor force participation rate — the number of people who are in the workforce or actively seeking employment — which is at 56%. It will offer training for adults and students as they start to think about how they want to make a living.
“So, we have positioned all of our work as cradle to career,” Staton said. “We’re focused on building a healthy, well-educated workforce that will be financially stable when they get a good job with a livable wage.”
The building will feature a workforce exploration center that will connect middle and high school students from across Southwest Virginia with hands-on career simulation and career exploration. One large room will house a program called Career Commons, which will feature 20 semi-customizable replicas of local businesses like Food City, a bank and a Ballad Health medical facility, where students will participate in hands-on, job-related activities.
For example, a local manufacturer might offer several job-related activities within its branded business replica, including robotics, virtual-reality welding and computer programming.
Over the course of a year, 30,000 students from 21 school systems are expected to go through the hub.
It will also be home to a regional GO TEC lab, which is a talent pathway initiative that introduces middle school students to subjects like precision machining, welding, IT coding and networking, automation and robotics. The lab will feature virtual welders, 3D printers and other equipment.
The lab will also be used to train teachers who are involved in GO TEC in the region’s school systems, Staton said.
It will create 100 jobs, including 70 teaching positions, he added.
“And the cool thing is these jobs are supporting the future workforce, but they’re also helping our workers now,” he said. “They need these services so they can go to work and know that their child is in a safe quality early learning environment.”
As of Thursday, $25 million of the $25.5 million needed has been raised, and 80% of it is private funding, Staton said.
The hub will also be the new home for EO and United Way of Southwest Virginia.
Earlier Thursday, EO announced three winners of its Childcare Business Challenge, who each received $10,000 to implement newly designed business plans.
Discovery Daycare in Russell County, Grace Christian Academy in Smyth County and Itty Bitties Academy in Glade Spring had the winning plans, which included long-term strategies to expand capacity in addition to specialized services such as speech therapy, after-school programs and camps.
The challenge was designed by EO as a kickoff for its Shared Services Alliance, a program aimed at strengthening a network of more than 200 existing child care providers in Southwest Virginia.
Participants received coaching, training and resources to create custom business plans tailored to their organizational structure and business goals.
