A Senseless Tragedy; June Forum

June 2019

It has been five days since 12 lives were senselessly taken at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, and we are still stunned by this tragedy in our region. Among the 12 victims was Tara Welch Gallagher, an engineer with the City of Virginia Beach who received our Hampton Roads Sanitation District Environmental Scholarship in 2002-03 when she was in graduate school at Old Dominion University.

We grieve with the families, friends, colleagues and neighbors of Tara and all the victims. We are grateful for the response from first responders and the outpouring of care and concern from our entire community and beyond. Yesterday, our foundation awarded a $25,000 donation to the Virginia Beach Tragedy Fund administered by the United Way of South Hampton Roads as one way to help the victims.

June Forum to Highlight Talent Alignment Study

On Tuesday, June 25, the region's growing labor shortage and a plan for gaining the skilled workers growing business requires will be the focus of an Understanding Hampton Roads forum. The event is sponsored by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in partnership with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council.

Results of a six-month Hampton Roads Workforce Talent Alignment Strategy will be released at the 7:30 a.m. breakfast forum at the Chesapeake Conference Center. The community foundation was the primary funder of the three-part study that includes a workforce analysis, supply-demand gap analysis and a workforce alignment strategy. The workforce council oversaw the six-month study by national experts and will lead its implementation.

The June 25 program will feature study highlights from two researchers with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, which helped conduct the study. There also will be a regional panel of experts to put the report in perspective.

Registration is free. Advance RSVP is required.

Learn more & sign up for the Talent Alignment Strategy event

More than 800 people attended the May 30 Conversation About Race With Dr. Beverly D. Tatum sponsored by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and Virginia Humanities at the Chesapeake Conference Center. Dr. Tatum, a national expert on race relations, is the author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

A video of the thought-provoking conversation Dr. Tatum had with journalist April Woodard, host of WTKR's Coast Live, is on our website. (Photo by Pat Jarrett/Virginia Humanities)

Watch the May 30 conversation here