An affiliate of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce is aiming to establish a "local hub" to create jobs for low-income families in the area by the end of the year.
The affiliate, the Greater Charlottesville Area Development Corporation, presented its proposal in a study called the Orange Dot Project, which was released Tuesday.
The local hub "would act like a brokerage for a general contractor matching the goods and services needs with the local talent in the community to provide those goods and services," Orange Dot Project Director Ridge Schuyler said.
The study is the first to empirically diagnose the location and levels of poverty in Charlottesville, said Timothy Hulbert, president of Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Orange Dot Project focused on families living in Charlottesville, as University students distort data about the extent of poverty, Schuyler said.
"They're in poverty because they're in school so you get a skewed vision of what the resident population looks like," she explained.
The study found that 29.1 percent of families living in Charlottesville do not earn a wage high enough to be self-sufficient. To live independently, a single parent with two children needs to earn $35,000 a year and a single parent with three children needs to earn at least $40,000 a year, the study stated.
The study shows that large organizations, including the University, which the study identified as one of the region's "powerful economic engines," could act as a source of business for these small employers. These local jobs in low employment-skill households could alleviate poverty in the Charlottesville community, Schuyler said.
The University is aware of its potential to support the local economy.
"We've had folks looking at these issues for a long time," said Megan Raymond, University director of academic community engagement.
Raymond said a Jefferson Public Citizens group is looking into the Charlottesville market.
"Those projects are the best testament to the kind of support that my program is doing to address those issues," she said.
University Dining also works with local businesses in Charlottesville.
"All of our suppliers are local businesses - even Pepsi is owned locally!" University Dining Marketing Manager Nicole Jackson said in an email.
Schuyler plans to use the difference between real family income and the income required to reach the level of self-sufficiency the study revealed to evaluate the success of the "local hub" project.
The study concluded that poverty in Charlottesville could be decreased by job creation and community support.
"Positioning a parent to get and keep a job is the family strand that, when interwoven with the job-creating community strand, can pull people out of poverty," the report stated.
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