United Way of Southwest Virginia said Tuesday it will establish a new nonprofit to manage its $10 million portfolio of grant-funded education and workforce programs, allowing the Abingdon-based organization to renew its focus on fundraising and other efforts.
The new organization, called “EO” — short for “Endless Opportunity” — will oversee initiatives including the Ignite Careers Expo, which gives middle-school students a preview of local career paths; Ready Regions, which supports early childhood education; the Rural Summit, which gathers Southwest Virginia stakeholders to discuss key challenges the region faces; and the Regional Workforce and Child Development Hub, which plans to provide career training and child care resources.
With this organizational change, United Way of Southwest Virginia can “realign with its core strength of connecting resources to the causes communities care about the most,” including workplace giving and fundraising for disaster responses, the nonprofit said in a news release.
“This reorganization allows both organizations to focus on their respective strengths, ultimately benefiting the communities we serve and increasing our abilities to drive impact,” Travis Staton, CEO and president of United Way of Southwest Virginia, said in the news release. “Although the two organizations will be separate independent non-profits, they will work together to ensure that our region continues to thrive.”
Establishing the new EO organization is expected to take six months, and its brand and logo will be introduced to the public in the coming weeks.
“During the transformation, both organizations’ Boards of Directors, staff, and volunteers remain committed to serving the community without interruption to the programs and services they have come to rely on,” the United Way said in its news release.
United Way worked with “consultants, subject matter experts, and community members” for months to come up with a representative name for the new group, and EO was chosen as “representing the hope for the region,” the release said.
“It is also Latin for go, which represents the organization’s bias for action to increase the quality of life within our community,” the nonprofit said.
United Way of Southwest Virginia describes its mission as “fighting for the health, education and financial stability of every person in Southwest Virginia.” Its programs serve the counties of Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe, and the cities of Bristol, Galax, Norton and Radford.