By Maggie Glass, 29 News
Tuesday night, April 9, the public was invited to come to Charlottesville High School and hear from their elected officials about long standing issues facing the community.
The group IMPACT Cville hosted a discussion to talk about what social changes it wants to see.
“It shows the power of people coming together about issues that we care about and issues we hope leaders care about, too,” Reverend Alex Joyner with IMPACT Cville and Charlottesville First UMC said.
IMPACT is short for Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together. It’s made up of 27 different religious groups.
“They are diverse in beliefs and economic and social status and have a range of opinions on a lot of things, but I think one thing we have all come together on is the need for dignity and justice and treatment for all of our citizens,” Rev. Joyner said.
To solve some of these problems, the nonprofit has its own list of solutions that it presented at a meeting at the beginning of March to a crowd of around a couple hundred people.
From Albemarle County, it wants a housing trust fund and $10 million commitment every year.
“$10 million would enable the building of about 300 homes or rental units a year,” Vikki Bravo with IMPACT Cville said.
From the City of Charlottesville, IMPACT Cville is asking for a more reliable and consistent transit service.
“Transit, bus transit in particular, is a backbone of our system and we want to see it fully funded,” Rev. Joyner said.
At Tuesday’s event, dubbed the Nehemiah Action, Albemarle County Supervisors Ned Gallaway, Ann Mallek, and Mike Pruitt were expected to attend. So were Charlottesville Mayor Wade & Vice Mayor Pinkston.
“We want them to see how serious these issues are, and we ask them to make commitments to do things to solve these problems,” Bravo said.
The group said this is their biggest event of the year and expected around 1000 people to attend.
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