This Centennial Year, we honor our past, present, and future. This article was originally published Oct. 24, 2017.
A proposal developed by McIntire Management Professor Bevin Etienne, along with colleagues Christine Mahoney, Batten School Director of Social Entrepreneurship @UVA; Elgin Cleckley, School of Architecture Professor; and Wes Bellamy and Kathy Galvin, Charlottesville City Councilors, has earned $25,000 in funding through UVA’s new Flash Funding program. The team’s “New Vinegar Hill” project aims to encourage the city to use a community-driven approach for future redevelopment projects and recommends a design-thinking process to facilitate productive conversations and creative solutions to move beyond racial division toward equitable wealth building for all.
Designed to provide rapid, one-time funding to small groups, the focus of the Flash Fund, offered for the first time this September, is on “Achieving the Culture and Environment We Value,” with a special emphasis on creative ideas for programming and initiatives that uproot the conscious and unconscious biases and misbeliefs that lead to racial tension. Proposals in partnership with the Charlottesville-area community are particularly encouraged.
As part of the proposal by Etienne and his colleagues, high school students will reach out to the Charlottesville community over the next year, seeking ideas for the development of a vibrant and economically thriving mixed-income neighborhood. Those suggestions will be refined through another round of outreach by UVA students. By next summer, the team hopes, the community will be able to vote on a few of the best suggestions, which will then be presented to the Charlottesville City Council.
