Hear Together

Most of the time, when people hear about services for literacy they assume they are only for children. However, The Read Center serves individuals ages eighteen and older who have low-level reading skills but want to make a difference in their lives and their family’s lives. We spoke with Nausha Brown Chavez, Advocacy Specialist for The Read Center in Richmond, for this Hear Together profile.

Having the courage to call is an inspiration. Needing the service and wanting to improve, wanting to fight against the odds, does not mean people should be ashamed. To change the mindsets of people who want to achieve their goals for themselves or for their families, you can make the call to utilize The Read Center’s services or volunteer to help better the lives of others. You can listen to the full segment at the audio link below and learn more on The Read Center’s website.

The Foxfield Races have been an integral part of Albemarle County since 1978. Mrs. Tejeda, the property’s original owner, wanted to ensure that the space served as a vehicle for community support. She founded the races to share the land with others in the region and encourage community members to give back to local philanthropic, charitable partners.

In 2020, Foxfield went a step further to become a registered nonprofit itself, while working with Albemarle County to solidify the conservation and preservation of the 178.65 acres under conservation easement. Not only does Foxfield continue the tradition of the two annual iconic steeplechase races, but it also hosts other events like 4Ks to support medical facilities.

For this Hear Together profile, we spoke with Foxfield Racing’s Executive Director, Kelsey Cox. You can listen to the full segment at the audio link below and learn more on Foxfield’s website.

Clever Communities in Action focuses on the promotion and placement of culturally affirming literature in Title 1 schools in Hampton Roads in order to improve literacy rates, build community, and heal traumas inflicted by systemic racism within the African-American community.

Providing youth with stories and characters that represent their own lived experience not only leads to an increased interest in reading, but to better outcomes in learning overall.

Clever Communities in Action’s programming has expanded to include a L.A.A.W Scholars program, a visiting author series connecting students to African American authors, and more.

We spoke with Founder and Executive Director, Starr Armstrong, for this Hear Together profile. Listen at the audio link below.

American Climate Partners is a nonprofit that builds and implements natural solutions to heal our climate by managing land and water in new ways that restore these cycles to the way they were before the Industrial Revolution.

Working primarily in the rural and suburban areas of Virginia, one of American Climate Partners’ current initiatives is the Rapidan Fish Passage Project. This long-term project to partially remove the Rapidan dam just north of Charlottesville would not only reconnect 500 miles of habitat for fish species, but would also positively impact our climate by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

We spoke with ACP’s Executive Director, Mike Collins, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen at the audio link below.

St. Luke Legacy Center Foundation in Richmond was created to expand upon the legacy of Maggie Walker, the first woman to open and serve as president of a chartered bank in the United States. The nonprofit aims to strengthen communities by providing access to a wraparound model of culturally relevant and holistic programs and resources that meet the needs of an entire family.

They address mental, financial, physical, social-emotional, and community health by offering a wide array of services that range from cooking classes to alternative methods of healing such as yoga and acupuncture.

We spoke with Korinn Y. Carter, CEO and President of the St. Luke Legacy Center Foundation, and Nikki Shaw, CCO and co-founder, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen to the audio link below.

Wildlife face ever-increasing risks from human involvement in their world, ranging from vehicular collisions to climate change and infrastructure development. Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary strives to bring awareness to the endangerment of wildlife and stresses the importances of returning animals back into the environment to positively impact that population’s survival.

The nonprofit provides educational outreach and serves around 800 animals per year including bats, turtles, snakes, and birds, among others.

We spoke with Brie Hashem, Former Director of Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen to the audio link below.

Providing a variety of produce over a half-acre of land, Allegheny Mountain Institute sponsors their Garden Club for middle school students to learn the basics of harvesting, planting, and seed starting. Between hands-on learning and interacting with kids of various age groups, the students in AMI’s Garden Club are given an opportunity to develop social-emotional skills outside of the classroom.

Ian and Aiden are eighth-grade students in Garden Club and enjoy sampling the produce they grow together, saying they feel a sense of accomplishment through the work they have put into growing the plants. The Garden Club shares their produce throughout Waynesboro to address food insecurity by delivering to food-banks, local preschools, and back-to-school nights.

We spoke with Julia Loman, Allegheny Mountain Institute Farm Manager at Waynesboro Public Schools, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen to the audio link below.

As a cultural staple in Virginia, Hull’s Drive-In has provided entertainment and a gathering space for the community in Lexington since 1950. When owner Sebert Hull passed away in 1998, local residents rallied together to form Hull’s Angels Inc. in order to keep the theatre open, effectively making Hull’s Drive-In the nation’s first nonprofit, community-owned drive-in.

Hull’s strives to pay it forward in the community, donating movie night proceeds to a rotating roster of fellow nonprofits, hosting farmer’s markets on weekends and serving as a rental space for private events like weddings.

We spoke with Lauren Summers, Executive Director of Hull’s Angels, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen at the audio link below and find Hull’s movie showings here.

Made up of medical professionals, student volunteers, and fitness instructors, LiftPD is a nonprofit organization in Richmond that offers free, small-group exercise classes for those living with Parkinson’s Disease. What started as a unique concept funded by a Parkinson’s Foundation Community Grant has now served over 70 individuals living with Parkinson’s (or other forms of Parkinsonism) over the past year, with the help of over 90 volunteers from local VCU professional programs.

The program uses high intensity disease-specific exercise training to help participants maintain and improve strength, balance, and mobility. By focusing on the repetition of workouts that target each person’s specific needs, LiftPD helps slow disease progression, and in some cases, even regain previously lost function.

We spoke with VCU physical therapist, and one of the founding members of LiftPD, Bobby Hand, for this Hear Together profile. You can listen at the audio link below and learn more about LiftPD on their website.

The Jefferson School is one of two remaining buildings from what was once Vinegar Hill–a 20-acre predominantly Black neighborhood in the heart of Charlottesville that was bulldozed in the ’60s after being seized through eminent domain. The Jefferson School started as the only Black school in Charlottesville, only to be decommissioned when schools were desegregated. The alumni of the original school wanted a place that would celebrate the building’s history, and by extension the Black history of Charlottesville, and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC) opened in 2013.

Along with a permanent picture gallery that tells the story of Vinegar Hill, the JSAAHC offers rotating contemporary art exhibitions featuring artists of the diaspora, lectures, a film and theater program, as well as six annual public celebrations. It is also home to the Isabella Gibbons Local History and Digital Humanities Center, which researches the history of Albemarle County and the surrounding region from enslavement through the present.

“There is a Vinegar Hill in every single city in America,” says Leslie M. Scott Jones, assistant curator of education and public programs at JSAAHC.

You can listen to the full segment at the audio link below and learn more about the Jefferson School at their website.