RVAgreen 2050: Understanding Community Priorities

A climate crisis, a global pandemic, and the legacy of white supremacy. These complex issues are challenging the health and safety of Richmond residents, livability of neighborhoods, and vitality of natural resources. In this phase of the RVAgreen 2050 planning process, we seek to ensure that the climate action and resilience plan addresses community priorities in an equitable way. We are using an equity framework that includes procedural, distributional, and structural equity. Read more about the RVAgreen 2050 commitment to equity.

We’re Listening

We use the term “communities on the frontlines of climate change” to identify those who are hit first and worst by the impacts of environmental injustice and the climate crisis. These communities confront many vulnerabilities, including racism, poverty, housing insecurity, and more, which intensify climate threats.

The goal of this phase of the RVAgreen 2050 planning process is to listen to the community and gather information on successes, challenges, and everyday needs. Originally, listening sessions were designed around resident engagement. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we adjusted our engagement plans based on the impact of the pandemic on residents and moved our focus to engaging organizations that work to empower communities on the frontlines of climate change. The organizations that participated in the community listening sessions focus on addressing community priorities such as empowerment, community investment, conservation, workforce development, and youth-based services. Additionally, to reduce redundancy, we found previous surveys and reports from other organizations to help identify and add context to the community priority list.

This listening process is ongoing. We will communicate what we heard and simultaneously make sure RVAgreen 2050 is adequately addressing community priorities. We acknowledge and understand that this is not direct feedback from residents. We used our best efforts given the existing circumstances to gather the main concerns and priorities to create our themes as listed below. A community-wide survey will also continue this process and get feedback from the broader community.

Finally, as we conducted our community listening process during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrations across the city supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, we examined the relationship between crises such as climate change and COVID-19 and underlying inequities that cause disparate impacts which often come down to race.