The Virginia Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) program was created in 2017 with a keen focus on incentivizing and rewarding regional collaboration while supporting efforts that help to strengthen and diversify regional economies and encourage the creation of high-value jobs in targeted traded industry sectors. The program recognizes that Virginia has distinct regional economies with unique assets and opportunities. Unlike traditional economic development incentive programs, GO Virginia seeks to create new capacity within regions and among regions with shared interests and drive transformational, long-term strategies that show promise to make regions and the companies that reside in them more competitive and create economic opportunities for residents.

Central to the success of the GO Virginia program has been the development and execution of distinctive regional Growth and Diversification Plans. These plans serve as guides and detail specific strategies designed to drive program outcomes within regions.

Since program inception and through June 30, 2020, GO Virginia has awarded $37.8 million in funding for 119 projects across the Commonwealth. In the spirit of regional collaboration, GO Virginia projects require the participation of two or more localities and matching funds from nonstate sources. These project awards have leveraged more than $52.7 million in additional funding from public and private sources. Appendix A provides a detailed list of funded projects and project descriptions.