PVCC and Equity Center have published latest snapshot of family economics in region

One in four households in the greater Charlottesville area are struggling financially and are not close to being self-sufficient. That’s one of the takeaways from the latest report on the topic from Piedmont Virginia Community College and the Equity Center at the University of Virginia. 

“While families facing economic insecurity live throughout our region, the likelihood that a family is struggling varies by race and by place,” reads the executive summary for the sixth version of the Orange Dot Report. “The struggle is not equally shared.”

The report covers the same footprint of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission as well as Buckingham County. There are further demographic breakdowns such as an account that 47 percent of Black families and 35 percent of Hispanic families are not able to cover their cost of living, whereas that figure for white families is 18 percent. 

Geographically, 27 percent of Charlottesville families are struggling as are 18 percent of Albemarle families. 

“Our community has seen progress since this work began in 2011, but there are still too many struggling families,” the introduction continues. “For a region as prosperous as ours, we have the means to build programs and enact policy that helps more families become self-sufficient.” 

After the first report was published 13 years ago, an entity called Network2Work was created to help people find better jobs and careers and to find ways to make sure that people had access to transportation, child care, and to help overcome other potential barriers to getting to work. 

Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek brought up the report at the November 6, 2024 Board meeting. 

 “A fabulous report on where they’ve been in the last ten years as well,” Mallek said.  

The Network2Work@PVCC website claims that nearly 70 percent of people who enroll in the program find a job and that their average annual wage increase is 107 percent with an average wage gain of over $17,000. For more information, visit the website. 

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