Local Highlights
Virginia
By the numbers,
1990–2010:
- $76.6 million
- $384.3 million
- 464,271 sq. ft.
- 2,970
Total Investment
Dollars Leveraged
Commercial Space
Homes & Apartments
Leader, Convener, and Community Builder
Virginia LISC’s comprehensive community development strategy, the Neighborhoods Rising Initiative, connects Central Virginia’s low-income communities to the resources and expertise necessary to implement initiatives that can transform these challenged communities into great neighborhoods where people choose to live, work and play. The overall strategic focus of this program will be on three neighborhoods within Richmond and two neighborhoods in Petersburg, Virginia. In 2010, Virginia LISC dedicated resources to the start-up of the Building Sustainable Communities initiative in both Petersburg (Battersea Neighborhood) and Richmond (Greater Fulton Neighborhood). Both of these Sustainable Community initiatives are in the final stages of creating residents’ Quality-of-Life plans. Smaller taskforce groups are being created in both neighborhoods to begin project implementation.
Virginia LISC collaborated with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Partnership for Housing Affordability in 2010 to host a forum "Turning Around Vacant Properties in Greater Richmond." This well-attended forum has led the City of Richmond to investigate and lobby General Assembly members to change their regulations and charter to permit receivership as a tool to combat their evergrowing number of abandon properties.
Fostering Healthy Environments
Through LISC and the Home Depot Foundation’s Healthy and Efficient Neighborhood Homes Partnership, two community development corporations received grant funding to cover the costs of incorporating green materials and techniques into the development of 290 affordable housing units and public green space in Richmond and Petersburg.
Building Healthy Communities
Virginia LISC teamed up with the NFL Youth Football Fund, the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation, the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, and the Petersburg Department of Parks and Recreation to renovate two youth football fields in central city neighborhoods in Richmond and Petersburg. Over 2,000 youth use these fields.