The Partnership for Regional Prosperity held an event on Wednesday to share the results of The Big Sort. A series of community workshops designed to prioritize regional challenges and opportunities aligned with growth for Danville and Pittsylvania County.
Those that participated in the workshops looked at 47 trends and were asked to answer two questions:
- How certain are we this trend will occur in the region by 2042?
- How much impact will this trend have on the future of Danville and Pittsylvania County by 2042?
During the workshops nine trends were mentioned the most as high impact and high certainty.
- Rising demand for new housing
- Rising pressures to address child care
- Improving water and sewer
- Increasing cyber security needs
- Rising broadband demand
- Rising telehealth for mental health
- Rising minimum wage
- Increasing tourism economy
- Increasingly sophisticated manufacturing
The nine trends were then ranked on a scale of 1-10 for how ready the area is for the trends by the participants. A score of six or higher means the area is ready for the trend.
According to the average scoring, the area is ready for two of the trends, which are an increasing tourism economy and increasingly sophisticated manufacturing. Five of the trends scored a four or five.
The two trends that scored the worst were rising demand for new housing at 2.9 and rising pressure to address childcare at 3.21.
After looking at the rankings and trends the Partnership For Regional Prosperity came away with three areas to focus on for the development of the area. The three areas are housing, child care, and infrastructure.