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Substantial collaborations with
Richmond Public Schools
and with strong community partners have
been built to tackle the impact of poverty on
educational outcomes, focusing on three key areas:
early childhood education, out-of-school-time, and
access to college and career opportunities. |
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Our collaborative approach to building a stronger,
more effective early childhood system has
attracted national recognition. |
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A major new public-private initiative aimed at
providing high quality out-of-school time
programming and academic support to adolescents,
NextUp,
launched at
Henderson Middle School
in 2014-15 and expanded to
Boushall Middle School
in 2015-16. |
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In 2015-16, the innovative
RVA Future
program launched as the critical first step of a long-term effort
to increase the number of RPS graduates going on to college or career training opportunities through the
provision of both financial and non-financial support. Future Centers are now open in all 5 comprehensive high schools. |
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The City’s Center for Workforce Innovation
(CWI) expanded operations in Fiscal Year 2015, and
continued its mission of connecting residents to
employment opportunities and providing a variety
of training programs to participants. In addition,
CWI launched the BLISS (Building Lives of
Independence and Self-Sufficiency) program in
2015 to provide holistic wrap-around support
services to families seeking to escape poverty by
transitioning to full-time quality employment. |
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The City has launched an innovative Social Enterprise
initiative aimed at developing a strong
sector of local firms committed to hiring residents
in poverty into living-wage jobs. The initiative, a
collaboration between the Office of Community Wealth Building,
Minority Business Development,
and
Economic and Community Development,
drawn on multiple policy levels,
including finding ways to leverage the buying
power of local anchor institutions to support
emerging social enterprises. |
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The Broad Street Bus Rapid Transit project
(GRTC Pulse)
represents a major investment in a
modernized public transportation infrastructure
for the City. This project is the first step towards
developing a genuinely regional transportation
system that connects the region’s residents
together and opens up access to job opportunities
for residents without reliable access to a private
vehicle. GRTC Pulse will begin service in the Fall of 2016. |
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In conjunction with the
Richmond City Health District
and collaboration with the
Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority,
(RRHA) the
Good Neighbor Initiative
has been launched
to connect RRHA residents to opportunities and
provide education and assistance on lease
compliance issues. |
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Last but not least, the
Office of Community Wealth Building
has assembled a strong
staff — a team of highly committed
professionals prepared to carry this ambitious
work forward, while continuing to build
collaborative relationships across the public
sector and in the community that can help
sustain this vital agenda over the long term.
Of particular importance is the
Maggie L. Walker Citizens Advisory Board,
formally created by
City Council
in December, which
assures an ongoing active citizen voice in the
process, especially for residents of higher
poverty neighborhoods. |
Keeping Citizens Informed!