02 May

Hundreds gather in Richmond demanding more affordable housing

Posted by in Affordable Housing, RISC

May 2, 2019. NBC12

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – There was a massive response Thursday night to Richmond’s ranking of being one of the worst cities in the nation for kicking people out of their homes.

Hundreds of people gathered on the Northside pledging to hold city leaders accountable in their goal of reducing the city’s staggering eviction rates. After reports of Richmond being second in the nation for evictions surfaced, Mayor Levar Stoney vowed to take action.

Many are applauding that move, but they say it can’t stop there.

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12 Apr

Know Your ABCs

Posted by in Public Education Improvement, RISC

April 12, 2019. Richmondmag.

Sitting inside an empty classroom near the front office, members of the faith-based coalition Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities (RISC) are listening to the Woodville Elementary School morning announcements with Richmond Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Tracy Epp.

“I am somebody. I am proud of myself, and I will act in a way to make others proud of me, too,” Principal Shannon Washington says over the intercom. Within minutes, the second-year principal darts in to greet about a dozen RISC Education Team members who are visiting on this December morning to observe a pilot program called Reading Mastery that debuted at six elementary and two middle schools this past fall. The group pushed for a “proven reading curriculum” for academically struggling schools such as Woodville, where only about a third of students were reading on grade level last year.

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13 Jun

School system ratchets up trauma training

Posted by in Minority Rights, Public Education Improvement, RISC

June 13, 2018. Chesterfield Observer.

Chesterfield school officials have committed publicly to expanding trauma-informed care training for staff as part of a “cultural shift” they think will reduce office referrals and out-of-school suspensions and keep children in the classroom.

Now they have to figure out how to pay for it.

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30 Apr

Chesterfield schools to expand trauma-informed training to help reduce minority student suspensions

Posted by in Minority Rights, Public Education Improvement, RISC

April 30, 2018. Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Before a collection of more than 20 congregations across the Richmond region, Chesterfield school administrators made commitments to expand teacher training to drive down minority student suspensions that have garnered Richmond-area schools scrutiny from the state and federal levels in recent years.

At the same time, Richmond schools Superintendent Jason Kamras responded with a “maybe” when it came to rolling out a pilot program to improve student reading levels.

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25 May

Parents, faith leaders confront Henrico School Board over ‘reading crisis’

Posted by in Public Education Improvement, RISC

May 25, 2017. WRIC.

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Faith leaders and parents in Henrico confronted school board members about the county’s lagging literacy rates on Thursday, and the board got an earful.

Parents are calling it a ‘reading crisis’ after thousands of students failed to pass their state reading test last year.

Read More “Parents, faith leaders confront Henrico School Board over ‘reading crisis’”