Growing Virginia’s Fourth Economic Engine 

Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor

Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, and the New River Valley were once among Virginia’s most vital economic engines, until the decline of tobacco, rail, textiles, and furniture manufacturing left the region with high unemployment, thin investment, and a reputation built on what it had lost. Regional business leaders refused to accept that verdict, rebuilding around site development, workforce training, advanced manufacturing, and bio/life sciences. The result, four thriving metro areas and the counties between them, raised a question: how to carry that momentum forward. 

  • Applying our economic and community development expertise, we helped the region’s CEOs and community leaders see the opportunity differently: not four separate metros competing for attention, but one megaregion with an opportunity to scale, anchored by Virginia Tech to the west and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research to the east. From there, we helped business leaders name the megaregion, the Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor, and stand up a supporting organization, a 501(c)(3), under the same name. This included our support drafting articles and bylaws, securing trademark protection, supporting meetings, and designing and running the organization’s operational systems. 

  • BRIC is now a thriving group, making a compelling case to state policymakers as one of Virginia’s four economic engines. A growing board of CEOs and institutional leaders is engaged both intellectually and financially, with the funding discipline to pursue its next step: Vision 2050, a strategic plan S.I.R. is supporting alongside more than 100 regional leaders and Deloitte’s international hub-scaling expertise, advancing Virginia’s fourth economic engine. 

Jump-Starting a City’s Quest to Become an Employer of Choice 

The City of Newport News

The City of Newport News tasked its new HR leader with making Newport News a place where people want to work and build a career, starting with employee-wide research to inform a strategic HR game plan. This kind of workforce research carries three challenges: surfacing the deep-seated feelings that shape workplace culture, generating a sample large enough to be reliable, and winning department leaders’ trust and buy-in, especially difficult within municipal government. The City turned to S.I.R. to conduct research that met each challenge and pointed toward a plan with real buy-in and support. 

  • Having run hundreds of workforce studies, we knew what to do. We designed the survey around our proprietary BELONG metrics: a sense of belonging, measured across six dimensions, is one of the strongest predictors of a healthy workforce culture, one that attracts and retains people. To drive participation, we met with department leaders in advance, guaranteed individual responses would stay confidential from the Administration, and reinforced that promise in every survey reminder. We shared top-line results with department leaders before finalizing implications and recommendations, so their input shaped the final report, and gave them a self-serve, encrypted dashboard to explore and identify additional findings on their own time. The final report benchmarked citywide and department-level findings against other cities, with a gap analysis showing where expectations and performance diverged. 

  • Almost a thousand employees, over a third of the workforce, responded. The BELONG framework resonated with department leaders, giving them a shared way to understand the culture they were building. Moreover, the inclusive process invited and engaged everyone to be part of HR planning, jump-starting the new HR leader’s path toward making the City of Newport News a great place to work and build a career. 

Virginia’s need for foster and kinship families is acute. From 1995 to 2005, the number of children in foster care rose from roughly 1,300 to 5,700. That number remains above 5,000 today, with four in ten age 13 or older, placing them at greater risk of “aging out” of the system without a permanent home. Yet, many conventional family recruitment strategies lead with smiling toddlers, and public narratives often frame foster parents as saviors rather than partners in the critical work of bringing families back together.

To overcome traditional marketing tropes and meet the need for families across the Commonwealth, VDSS needed to understand what would truly motivate prospective foster families, what holds them back, and, in turn, how to authentically communicate in ways that honor the lived experience of youth and families.  

  • S.I.R. designed a multi-phase study pairing secondary research with deep qualitative and quantitative work that included: 

    • Interviews with current resource families 

    • A focus group with SPEAKOUT, Virginia’s statewide youth advisory board for foster care youth and alumni 

    • Online Virtual Communities with current and prospective parents 

    • A statewide survey among past, current, and prospective foster care families 

    The core insight from our research: prospective foster families have a clear desire to connect and provide a safe, loving presence for youth and families in their communities, but they’re often held back by fear of the emotional unknowns and perceived logistical hurdles. The key communication implication: authentic and emotional stories draw families in, but without practical guidance and assurances of support, interest stalls. 

    Using this research, S.I.R. then developed a statewide, story-driven marketing campaign built around a series of Virginia families sharing their authentic, real-life stories of foster care, offering prospective families a complete picture of the why, the how, and the rewards that come from opening their hearts and homes.  

  • Through digital and broadcast channels, the campaign delivered nearly 15 million impressions with standout engagement: 

    • Social media earned a 4.48% click-through rate, well above related industry benchmarks. 

    • More than 230,000 Virginians visited the recruitment site for the first time. 

    • 800+ new families entered the statewide recruitment pipeline. 

    • Inquiries and applications from new families rose from an average of 66 per month to 120 per month over the campaign, an 82% increase

Using Research-inspired Communications to Recruit Foster Families Across Virginia 

Virginia Department of Social Services

Hampton Roads (757) and Metro Richmond (RVA), Virginia’s second- and third-largest economic engines, had spent generations thinking and acting like competitors. A decade ago, top leaders from the 757 and RVA met to rethink this premise. Should neighboring cities compete or work together? 

The group met in Williamsburg, the geographic midpoint, and arrived at an answer: make each region’s economy stronger by joining forces to advance the infrastructure that connects the two regions. This included I-64, passenger rail, multiuse trails, and digital infrastructure. All agreed that this would require an unprecedented level of intentional and ongoing collaboration. 

  • S.I.R. led the needed formalization, supporting senior business leaders in establishing RVA757 Connects, a 501(c)(3) with governance, bylaws, a sustainable funding model, and a research-backed game plan. The overall effort was branded the I-64 Innovation Corridor. 

    In the organization’s early years, S.I.R. provided overall organizational management. As RVA757 Connects grew and built its own staff, S.I.R. stepped back from daily management while continuing to conduct the strategic research behind RVA757 Connects’ infrastructure advocacy efforts, one of the keys to the organization’s success. 

  • RVA757 Connects is now part of the region’s economic development ecosystem (EDOs, PDCs, Chambers, etc.) and a leading voice for greater infrastructure investment. Its early work has helped its ecosystem partners deliver: 

    • The Virginia Port Authority’s takeover of Richmond Marine Terminal (RMT) removed thousands of trucks and their containers from I-64 and turned the surrounding area, just a few miles south of the City of Richmond, into a major regional logistics hub. 

    • Widening I-64 to three lanes in both directions between Richmond and Williamsburg, closing the long-standing “I-64 Gap.” 

    • Funding and construction of a third of the multiuse TRAIL757. 

    • Long Bridge rail project’s funding obtained, construction underway — opening the door to expanded passenger rail across RVA, 757, and the rest of Virginia. 

    • Growing recognition of and investment in the megaregion as a Global Internet Hub. 

    RVA757 Connects work is very intentional, ongoing collaborative work, by design. S.I.R. remains one of the quiet, behind-the-scenes forces helping RVA757 Connects deploy this collaborative spirit in driving the megaregion forward. 

Driving a Megaregion’s Economic Growth Through Infrastructure Connectivity

RVA757 Connects and the I-64 Innovation Corridor

Portsmouth possesses enormous strategic assets, one of the nation's most significant deepwater ports and dominant shipbuilding and ship repair industries. But the city faces critical pressures: extreme economic dependence on shipbuilding, forecasted employment decline, workforce skills mismatches, housing shortage, aging infrastructure, and a public image problem hindering talent and investment attraction.

New leadership at Portsmouth's Economic Development Department needed a data-driven strategic plan to support its primary industries while diversifying the economy and serving the city's broader vision of inclusive development.

  • S.I.R. led a multi-phase planning process combining trends research with JobsEQ economic data, building PED team buy-in through seven meetings and a strategic retreat. The analysis surfaced three insights: shipbuilding and ship repair account for a quarter of city jobs and need focused retention; healthcare, logistics, and IT are the most promising growth sectors; and Portsmouth must replace nearly its entire 45,000-person workforce by 2036 as retirements and industry shifts compound. We delivered a five-year strategic plan with SMART goals, an implementation roadmap, KPIs, and, distinctively, an elevated PED role in community development, housing, safety, education, and four redevelopment districts, as drivers of talent attraction. We delivered a five-year strategic plan with SMART goals, foundational strategies, an implementation roadmap, KPIs, and, distinctively, an elevated PED role in community development — housing, safety, education, and four redevelopment districts — as essential drivers of talent attraction

  • Within three months of adopting the plan, Portsmouth landed Radian Forge, an additive manufacturing company investing $10.5 million and creating more than 50 new jobs in the city. The City was so pleased with the inclusive planning process and the resulting plan that it asked S.I.R. to present it to public stakeholders, including the City Council during its retreat, helping the PED director carry that moment. S.I.R. also presented to several other Portsmouth planning organizations, reinforcing the plan’s focus. It was the first time PED had a real research-based, data-driven strategic plan capable of delivering results for the city’s future. 

Reinvigorating Citywide Economic Growth That Benefits All

City of Portsmouth Economic Development

Making Virginia a National Leader in Volunteerism and Civic Engagement

Serve Virginia

Nationally, volunteering has been in retreat. In 2019, 30% of Americans age 16 and older reported volunteering formally with an organization. By 2021, that number had dropped to only 23%, the sharpest decline since federal tracking began in 2002. That same year, the Virginia Service Commission, the lead agency for service and volunteerism across the state, set out to reverse that trend. But its service ecosystem was fragmented, and the Commonwealth had no primary data on who serves, who does not, and why.

  • From an initial six-month planning process through five years of ongoing research, program development, and communications support, S.I.R. has helped the commission align its network around a shared vision of building a culture of service in every corner of the Commonwealth and strengthening the supports behind volunteer mobilization. On the heels of their strategic plan, we helped rebrand the commission as Serve Virginia to reinforce its presence as a leader in the field. Then, working with Serve Virginia’s network of volunteer centers, nonprofits, educational institutions, faith communities, and state agencies, we designed and launched the Virginia Community Engagement Index. This first-of-its-kind study has become a repeatable statewide measure of what drives service and volunteerism, and Serve Virginia has used this study since to target recruitment, tailor training and technical support, and strengthen its portofilio of AmeriCorps programs across the state.

  • With a research-backed plan behind it, Serve Virginia has grown grassroots service faster than the country. From 2021 to 2023, informal volunteering rose from 49.7% to 57.0%, more than double the national pace and Virginia’s highest rate on record, lifting the Commonwealth from 37th to 27th nationally. Formal volunteering climbed as well, rising from 27.2% to 31.6% — and keeping Virginia above a national rate that has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Roanoke Regional Partnership

A Strategic Plan Shaped By Stakeholders

The Roanoke Regional Partnership, the regional economic development organization spanning more than ten counties around Roanoke, Virginia, had a good problem: its previous strategic plan, Thrive 2027, hit its goals two years early. With momentum to build on, the Partnership needed to map the region’s economic development trajectory for the next five years, and wanted its board and lead investors genuinely shaping that direction rather than reacting to it. 

  • S.I.R. led a board- and investor-driven strategic planning process spanning the drivers of economic growth: innovation, workforce, talent development pipeline, infrastructure, and recruitment and retention. Two in-person board workshops got regional experts out of their seats to help build the plan directly, defining the key objectives and the specific strategies supporting each. Rather than drafting priorities behind closed doors, S.I.R. had the people who would own the plan envision and build it, an approach that mirrored the region’s collaborative “mountain way” of working together. 

    Throughout the process, S.I.R.’s proprietary trends data surfaced insights that fueled discussion. This process helped identify and take a new perspective on redevelopment strategies the Partnership had not previously considered. In addition, S.I.R. aligned the planning effort with the tenets guiding the Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor (BRIC) megaregion’s Vision 2050 strategic planning process. 

  • When the final plan was presented to the board in June 2026, there were no surprises, because the board and investors had helped create it. The Partnership launched its next chapter as Forge 2032, an evolutionary plan that builds on what the organization does best while responding to new market conditions. Chief among its new priorities is a focus on redevelopment, a promising growth opportunity given the region’s shortage of available sites and the growing interest of expanding companies in existing properties. Forge 2032 positions the Roanoke region as one of Virginia’s emerging economic engines, skating to where the puck is headed. 

Sentara Health

Helping a Client Live Its Mission

Sentara’s mission is “to improve health every day.” Leadership recognized that what most determines a person’s health happens outside the primary care office and the hospital. By focusing on what’s often called the social determinants of health (SDOH), Sentara could make an even larger impact in delivering on that mission. The challenge: many people didn’t yet appreciate the social determinants of health perspective, and many of the non-profit community organizations doing this work were woefully underfunded. 

  • S.I.R. helped Sentara design and launch a corporate social responsibility program branded as “Sentara Cares” (www.SentaraCares.com). Working with Sentara leadership, we focused corporate giving on the social determinants with the greatest impact on Sentara’s communities, identifying focus areas through Sentara’s own public, comprehensive Community Needs Assessment. 

    One focus area was food security. S.I.R. helped Sentara build a partnership with the Federation of Virginia Food Banks and the Commonwealth of Virginia to create “We Care” food boxes, a week’s supply of nutritious food ingredients with instructions packaged in a 20-pound sealed box. Thousands of boxes were assembled and distributed across Virginia at Virginia’s food banks. Sentara executives and teammates helped with the packouts. Governor Northam helped, too. Boxes were distributed through drive-by pickup lines during the peak of the COVID pandemic. In addition to food, each box included information on referrals to other social services. The program delivered over a million meals, well-timed to launch as government emergency food benefits expired. 

    S.I.R. also helped create Sentara Cares’ “Anchoring Communities” communications campaign, in which Sentara grant partners described, in their own words, the SDOH needs they were addressing and the impact of their work. A Sentara-sponsored statewide advertising and social media campaign showcased these stories to build public support for community health and for the non-profits doing this work. 

    We then translated that strategy into authentic storytelling and programs: Voices of Kindness, a cinematic series celebrating frontline hospital emphasizing their commitment to their neighbors, Anchoring Communities, a mini-documentary series that let local grant partners tell their own stories; Sentara Cares, unscripted conversationsof staff members discussing the social determinants of health that require intervention,  the "We Care" initiative with the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, which delivered food and health resources to families across the Commonwealth; and Sentara Scholars, a program designed to address workforce shortages by opening healthcare career pathways for the next generation.

  • Within a few years, awareness of SDOH needs and Sentara’s community support climbed, both outside and inside the company. Sentara’s community cause was among the highest recognized across Virginia. Internally, Sentara teammates took pride in the “Sentara Cares” campaign, driving employee volunteering. Most importantly, Sentara’s CSR program enabled Sentara to continue to improve health every day well beyond its physical campuses. 

Henrico County is widely recognized for its exceptional quality of life and pro-business environment, leading the region in population, talent, and GDP growth. But the County faced two uncomfortable realities: workforce and GDP growth were plateauing, and with the county largely built out, more of the same wouldn’t work. Henrico needed a new strategic plan that would examine its growth drivers through a new lens and would require real change management to succeed

  • S.I.R. built change management in from the start, engaging the entire EDA staff throughout a six-month planning process. That work began with deep dives into trends and disruptors, using S.I.R.’s proprietary trends research to examine the demographic, social, cultural, workforce/workplace, technological, and economic shifts shaping the county’s future. In addition, S.I.R. shared broader trends reshaping the economic development industry and relevant best practices. 

    From there, S.I.R. conducted extensive stakeholder research: interviews with business and community stakeholders and County leadership, plus mining JobsEQ data that identified five target industry sub-sectors ripe for expansion. 

    The final plan was structured around the intersection of two mutually dependent priorities: (1) economic development, business recruitment and retention, and (2) community development, workforce development and quality of life. New initiatives were included to leverage two trends: rising entrepreneurship since COVID and an economic development industry-wide pivot toward redevelopment, assembling and repositioning existing parcels even more aggressively than before. 

    In addition, the plan included a new portfolio of EDA performance measures that more closely align with the intersection of economic development and community development. 

  • Henrico now has a five-year strategic plan with measurable SMART goals, a clear action framework, and an implementation timeline. Delivered in late 2025, the plan was put to work immediately, making the case for the Henrico EDA to commit $5 million to the Henrico Innovation Hub, a partnership with StartUp Virginia that leveraged a $1.8M GO Virginia grant. The Hub will support high-growth startups in the Richmond region and is the largest single investment by the EDA in more than 30 years. 

Creating a Strategic Plan That Makes an Immediate Case for Investment 

Henrico Economic Development Authority

Tell us what you're working on?

If you're facing a decision that matters to your organization or your community, we'd like to hear about it