Roanoke is a city near Blacksburg, and the city's demographics are skewed, like many rural towns and cities, toward older people. The City recently decided to stop wringing its hands about the paucity of young people and actually do something. First they hired someone whose primary job responsibility is to solve the problem, and then gave him free rein. Stuart Meese, who landed the job, has both a blog and a city-sponsored online database of young people looking for work in the area.
With over 450 young people in the database after just a few months, the database is fast becoming a valuable resource for area businesses looking for talent. A hat tip to Roanoke and Stuart Meese for putting resources behind the problem and doing something other than just complaining. And while you might ask, "What about Monster.com?" I'd say, "What about it?" They are two different tools, and employers searching the Roanoke database can do so with a reasonable certainty they are looking at motivated potential employees who really want to work in the area. You can't say that with any certainty when you pull up a bunch of Monster.com listings.