A Shenandoah Valley Project Impact publication created to help children understand disaster preparedness and navigate the stress of severe weather has been reformatted into a mini-guide that will soon be in the hands of children impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Thanks to a collaboration of several organizations and volunteers, 25,000 copies of “Too Much Weather” Kids Disaster Activity Guide will be shipped to hurricane-affected areas this month. The eight-page book is designed to be completed with a parent, teacher, or adult helper, and contains activities to assist children in dealing with the trauma they have experienced.

“Too Much Weather” was originally published after Hurricane Katrina through grant funding received by Shenandoah Valley Project Impact (SVPI), which is a program of the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission. James Madison University professor Dr. Anne Stewart worked with SVPI to create the materials that were included in the original guide, which also has information for kids about preparing for disasters, and what to do during severe weather.

The idea for creating a “mini-guide” edition sprung up when several people familiar with the guide decided it was critical to get it in the hands of the most recent young hurricane victims. Several organizations teamed up to quickly make it happen. Graphic design and formatting to make the guide accessible for the visually impaired were donated by Wightman and Associates, a training development firm in Florida.  Dr. Alessandra Jerolleman, a Community Resilience and Hazard Mitigation expert from New Orleans contributed the Spanish translation, and Kathryn Lebby and the Association of Play Therapy Foundation donated the printing of 20,000 English and 5,000 Spanish copies.

Word has quickly spread about the availability of the guide, and SVPI is starting to receive requests for copies from groups like the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum, located in St. Thomas. The museum is working with volunteers stateside to create 500 – 600 “trauma bags” that will be shipped by private plane to the children in the Virgin Islands. The group is also asking for donations of the following items to be included in the bags:

• Notebooks/journals
• Crayons, pens, pencils
• Flashlights
• Stress balls
• Bubbles
• Playdoh or silly putty
• Power bars/snack bars

SVPI and Community Emergency Response Team members will be collecting the above items for shipment to the staging area along with copies of “Too Much Weather.”  Community members interested in donating can drop items at the CSPDC offices at 112 MacTanly Place in Staunton from 8:30am – 5:30pm on September 14 and 15, from 10:00am – 1pm on Saturday, September 16, and 8:30am – 5pm on September 18.

For more information about “Too Much Weather” Kids Disaster Activity Guide, contact Rebecca Joyce, (540) 885-5174, rebecca@cspdc.org.

A regional Economic Growth and Diversification Plan prepared by the GO Virginia Region 8 Council has received final approval from the GO Virginia State Board. The Region 8 Council’s plan identifies five target industry sectors in the Shenandoah Valley where job growth is anticipated in the next five years. These jobs are expected to have an average wage of $41,000 or higher. The target industries include financial and business services, healthcare, light manufacturing, information technology/communications, and transportation and logistics.

The Region 8 Economic Growth and Diversification Plan identifies economic opportunities, needs, and challenges, establishes priorities, and outlines support necessary for multi-locality collaborative projects to potentially be funded under GO Virginia. The plan also recommends strategies for addressing workforce recruitment and training in target industry sectors. In addition to defining the five anticipated growth industries, Region 8 Council’s plan also includes a set of broadly-defined framework initiatives intended to recruit/retain necessary talent, grow existing businesses, establish start-ups, and support joint economic development activities such as site development and workforce training.

George Pace, Chair of the Go Virginia Region 8 Council, said: “The Plan we have developed will provide the framework for prioritizing projects for GO Virginia funding. Our goal is to create more job opportunities that pay over $41,000 through incentivized collaboration between public and private organizations throughout Region 8.”

GO Virginia Region 8 covers a large area from Winchester to Lexington, and includes ten counties and six cities in the Shenandoah Valley, with a combined population of 525,000. The 28-member council that oversees the GO Virginia program is made up of representatives from small and large business, higher and k-12 education, elected officials, and economic and workforce development organizations.
Approximately $1M in implementation funding will be made available to the region for projects that align with the approved Region 8 Council’s Economic Growth and Diversification Plan. Projects must be collaborative, involving two or more localities and private sector partners, and be focused on growing and diversifying the region’s economy to complement existing industry clusters as outlined in the Council’s plan.

For more information on GO Virginia, visit online at Shenandoah Valley Partnership or Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

About GO Virginia: The Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) is a voluntary, business-led, bipartisan initiative that was formed to foster private-sector growth and diversification across nine economic development regions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. State financial incentives designated for regional projects that encourage collaboration between private sector companies, workforce, education, and government are administered by the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Board.