The GO Virginia State Board continued its support of projects in four priority investment areas; startup ecosystem, cluster scale-up, workforce development, and site development and infrastructure. These strategies have been recognized as essential building blocks for sustaining and accelerating the growth of traded industry clusters, interrelated firms who together contribute significantly to Virginia’s total economic output. Firms in supported traded cluster are positioned to compete to serve national and international markets and most importantly, drive wealth-creating employment opportunities for Virginians.

Program Impact Areas

Regional Collaboration

GO Virginia was developed to incentivize and reward regional collaboration that supports the growth and diversification of regional economies and more efficient use of state and local resources. By measures, GO Virginia has helped to achieve these outcomes, engaging more than 200 unique public entities in collaborative regional economic development initiatives, including more than 150 units of local government (counties, cities, and towns), 15 regional economic development organizations/authorities, more than 30 school divisions, as well as planning districts and workforce development boards.

GO Virginia was recently recognized by the International Economic Development Council for these efforts, receiving the highest honor Excellence in Economic Development Award for Regional Collaboration in 2022.

Leveraged Resources

Since program inception and through June 30, 2022, GO Virginia has awarded $92.4 million in funding for 228 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 non-state sources. These project awards have leveraged more than $109.4 million in additional funding from public and private sources.

GO Virginia funded efforts have also demonstrated success in accessing federal funds. During the most recent program year, more than $77M in federal grants were awarded to projects inspired and funded by GO Virginia. Notable in FY 2022, project leads in GO Virginia regions Four and Five were successful with two of the US Economic Development Administration’s most competitive programs – the Build Back Better Regional Jobs Challenge and the Good Jobs Challenge. Collectively, they attracted $64M in federal funds to support efforts to establish an end-to-end supply chain for the emerging advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing cluster in Region 4 and to expand the pool of qualified workers the to support the blue economy and clean energy industries and address critical shortages in cybersecurity roles in Region Five.

High-Impact Outcomes

Through June 30, 2022, GO Virginia projects under contract have pledged to support the following outcomes during their grant performance period.

• Create 26,000 new jobs

• Train 13,000 students in high demand fields

• Create 2,700 new work-based learning opportunities, including internships and apprenticeships

• Award 3,600 workforce credentials

• Serve 14,000 existing businesses

• Create 800 new businesses in traded sector industries

• Prepare 10,000 acres for future economic development opportunities