NBC12 VIEWPOINT: Community Wealth Building in Richmond

By: Kym Grinnage email

Community Wealth Building is the preferred term that Richmond, in addition to other progressive cities, has adopted instead of anti-poverty, in an effort to foster a more proactive action plan of empowerment.

Earlier this week The Richmond Business Council, a program of Chamber RVA, hosted Mayor Dwight Jones and his team to discuss the ongoing efforts of the Office of Community Wealth Building. During his comments Mayor Jones talked about the progress that is being made in the city of Richmond through private public partnerships that are designed to increase work force readiness in the communities where the largest concentration of poverty exists.

In addition, The Office of Community Wealth building has targeted mixed use housing as a method of bringing diverse income groups together to live in the same community. For those of us who have lived in urban environments, this is not a new concept, but one that worked for many years in communities like Jackson,  where wealthy citizens of Richmond lived side by side with working class citizens.

The call to action on this day was for more business partnerships. Following the Mayor's formal remarks he noted three examples of local businesses that have formed partnerships for work force development with the City. The Strickland Machine Company has a welding training partnership and the Workforce Center has partnered with the Capital Area Health Network and Stone Brewing to bring more jobs to communities in need.

For more information please go to: http://www.richmondgov.com/CommunityWealthBuilding/

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