The Roanoke Regional Partnership launched its new, forward-looking five-year fundraising campaign, Thrive 2027, at a kick-off event held this week. The Partnership’s plan focuses on innovation, site development, and workforce issues among other critical elements necessary to enhance our region’s competitiveness.
The 2027 plan builds on the current program of work, adopted in 2017, that took the region to a higher level, creating over the past five years 3,255 direct and indirect jobs, $527 million in new investments, new annual consumer expenditures of $197 million, and an increase in per-capita income by nearly 15 percent. All metrics met and most exceeded the benchmarks established in 2017, despite grappling with a global pandemic.
“Thanks to a decade of success leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Roanoke Region is positioned competitively. We emerge set to attract innovative businesses, supported by world-class talent, and continuing to build upon a growing sense of “place”, fueling economic vitality,” said campaign co-chair Don Halliwill, chief financial officer of Carilion Clinic. “Thrive 2027 will build upon our existing foundation of successful business community support with this strategic plan for growth.”
In a presentation via zoom webinar, the public-private partnership, which includes eight regional municipalities and more than 200 businesses, outlined its plan to focus on leading regional talent attraction efforts, boosting the region’s reputation as an innovation hub, collaborating with workforce development partners, fostering diversity, expanding infrastructure, increasing economic competitiveness, acquiring sustainable funding for key outdoor assets, and stimulating development to help regional communities and businesses compete and thrive.