Mobility and Mobilization

Like the Practicum project, this new venture will connect kids, families and communities to resources and opportunities.

I have started a new job with Piedmont Environmental Council. In cooperation with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and with support from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, we are working with communities in both Charlottesville and the urban areas of Albemarle County to envision and implement a connective network of trails and greenways. In many ways, it is an enlargement of the Monticello Connectivity practicum project.

The project has two main intertwined elements. We will talk to many people in diverse organizations and neighborhoods to develop a multi-modal transportation plan that truly reflects community ideas, needs and values. We will also engage with stakeholders to develop the civic infrastructure to keep sustain public advocacy to bring that vision to reality both by holding government accountable and by contributing their passion and even labor as well as their ideas. It’s about both mobility and mobilization.

We will begin our two-year project with a kickoff event on Wednesday, November 8 6-8 p.m. at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Greenways guru Chuck Flink and Max Hepp-Buchannan from Bike-Walk RVA will share insights about the benefits of greenways and ideas about how to make them happen.

We will follow that with a series of events, community visits and conversations about how to make a more connected community.

Kickoff Event | Project Page