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Patrick County, Virginia encompasses a picturesque 483
square miles along Virginia’s border with North Carolina.
This beautiful rural county sits at the gateway of the rugged
Blue Ridge Mountains and offers both the rolling terrain of
the Piedmont region and mountain elevations of over 3000 feet.
Roughly thirty miles of the County’s western boundary is traversed by
the Blue Ridge Parkway, known as “America’s Favorite
Drive”. Much of the County lies within one hour
to one and a half hours from major North Carolina metropolitan
areas including the Winston-Salem / High Point / Greensboro Triad area.
The closest Virginia cities are Martinsville , Danville, and
Roanoke.
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Like many rural communities, particularly
those in mountainous regions, access and isolation have long
posed significant economic challenges for Patrick County. Lack of good roads,
especially a network of major multilane highways, has been
a barrier to commercial transportation and development. Isolation
created by geographic barriers has also limited the County’s
economic growth. Residents living within just a few miles of one another
may shop and carry out their business affairs in different commercial centers,
often outside of Patrick County or even outside of Virginia. A very real illustration
of the impact of such barriers on economic development in Patrick County is seen
in per capita income. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, per capita income in
Patrick County was $15,574 or 65% of that of the Commonwealth of Virginia ($23,975)
and 72% of the national average ($21,587).
Patrick County is not only a
place of great scenic beauty, but also a good place to live
and raise a family. It is home to some 19,000 good
and proud people—intelligent workers who possess a superior
work ethic. Economically, Patrick County has long depended
on the largely labor-driven business sectors, like agriculture,
for its vitality. Residents not employed in some aspect
of agriculture have historically found work in the timber
and textile-related industries located throughout our region.
In recent years, 45% of our County’s workforce has commuted
out-of-county to find work in those industries.
For generations, these labor-driven industries
have been very good to the people of Patrick County, providing
good jobs, good wages and valuable job security to the County’s
workforce, their children and their grandchildren. Few
had to worry about where they would spend their work lives—all
they needed was right here. These labor-dependent industries
required little formal education or training in exchange for
good jobs and lifelong job security. High school students
could choose to either graduate or leave school without a diploma
and still find good jobs and make a comfortable
living for themselves and their families without leaving the County.
Education was seen as “nice” to have but not important
or necessary and so it was not a personal, economic, political or cultural priority.
Then came the 1990s and everything changed.
Like many regions of our nation that have long depended
on “low-tech” labor-intensive industries, Patrick
County and surrounding areas were hit hard by changing economic
conditions and the accompanying rapid shift from a labor-based
economy to one driven by intellectual capital, by information.
Our region’s formerly strong economic currency, our
labor, rapidly lost value in the marketplace. Information
became the new economic currency and education was its source.
Education, however, was the one resource that Patrick County lacked.
The impact on Patrick County of this economic shift away
from labor-dependent industries toward those driven by information has been
significant. Widespread layoffs, plant closings and high unemployment became
part of the landscape of both this county and the surrounding areas.
Today, while unemployment rates for Patrick have improved,
they are still significantly above statewide averages and among the worst in
the Commonwealth. Even improved unemployment figures, however, cannot hide the
reality that many County adults remain out of work and many of those working are
likely earning significantly less than before. The economic shift away from the
labor-dependent industries has been at great cost to both individuals and the
region as a whole.
The cost of our County’s past neglect
of education is now clear:
- U.S. Census data from 2000 show that 43% of County residents
ages 21 and over do not have a high school education,
- Patrick County ranks near the bottom
among the Commonwealth’s
rural counties in critical workforce readiness measures—in
the percentage of high school students who go to college, the
percentage of adults over the age of 21 who have a high school
education and the presence of effective workforce training
initiatives, and
- Many of our region’s workforce skills
became obsolete with the emergence of the new information-driven
economy.
The bottom line: Businesses and industries
seeking rural locations for new or expanded operations seek
out areas with a well-educated and highly-skilled workforce
and screen out those with low education attainment levels.
If things do not change, Patrick County will be among those
localities screened out.
With many of the
County’s former sources of employment
gone or rapidly disappearing, Patrick County must act aggressively to
address these critical economic development issues if our citizens
are to enjoy a strong economy and robust employment opportunities
in the future. This is the challenge articulated by the
Patrick County Education Foundation in 2001. It shaped
our mission and it drives the work we do every day.
We are asking the citizens of Patrick County
to help us bring about nothing short of cultural change through
which creating an educated workforce will become our County’s
top priority. The Patrick County Educational Foundation
is leading the way.
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