Perkins Plunge 2025
Our Perkins Fellows gathered on August 25th to share their personal stories as well as hear the stories of our community partners and the collective story of our city. Founded nine years ago, the Perkins Fellows program fills a unique void at UVA: to try to live out Jesus’ call to love our Charlottesville neighbors as ourselves. We are inspired and motivated by the vision of John & Vera Mae Perkins who’ve distilled their work in Christian community development down to the 3 R’s:
Relocation - To move to be near the people you are serving. Bryan Stevenson’s talk about Proximity fits in well here, as does the theological concept of the Incarnation.
Reconciliation - To reconcile people to God and neighbor as the Greatest Commandment teaches us.
Redistribution - To love people by tending to their physical needs through practicing justice & mercy.
Since I love alliteration, I developed our own set of practices centered on LOVE for Perkins Fellows called the 3 L’s:
Listen & Learn the stories and histories of our city collectively and our neighbors individually. This involves a lot of question-asking; Jesus & his disciples were always asking questions!
Laugh - We don’t take ourselves too seriously. Humility is key.
Lean In for the Long Haul- We hope to model to the UVA community to importance of leaning on C’ville neighbors and serving the work of sustaining justice, even when uncomfortable or inconvenient.
The Perkins Plunge is our kickoff event- meant to immerse the Fellows into the Charlottesville community and introduce them to one another and the various non-profits their co-fellows will be serving alongside. It is a long day with lots of logistics, travel, and moving pieces, but each year it proves invaluable as the catalyst for that “diving in” feeling of excitement as we begin. This year felt particularly blessed as many unexpected supporters and friends stumbled across our path and were able to relay messages of impact and encouragement to the students.
We started off Perkins Plunge by sharing our personal stories of WHY we’re here with the Perkins Fellows while sipping iced lattes from the Kindness Café - one of our community partners employing adults with cognitive disabilities through their coffee shop. We then went to Bread & Roses - an urban garden and food justice initiative of Trinity Episcopal Church, the first Black Episcopal Church in the area founded in 1919. Next up was The Haven, a low-barrier day shelter for anyone with housing instability where we unpacked some myths around those struggling to find a home.
We spent some time at the Heather Heyer Memorial, named after the young woman tragically killed by a white supremacist on Aug 12, 2017. I talked with the Fellows about the importance of asking the question that Civil Rights activist Ruby Sales asks: “Where does it hurt?” Knowing & seeing peoples’ pain is essential. John Perkins talks about learning peoples’ FELT NEEDS, yet, we also must acknowledge their strength and beauty. We discussed the evolution of asset-based community development as it tries to balance out harnessing the community’s existing strength and resources with overly need-focused community development. We are not all just pain and problems! We are solutions, too. We ended our time at the Heather Heyer Memorial with prayer led by our returning Fellows.
After a hearty lunch at Marco Luca Dumplings, we joined Katie Thach and Khartool Masoudi at International Neighbors where we learned more about the care needed and offered to our refugee community. We ended our long day sitting with the program staff of Abundant Life Ministries (CALM), long-time friends and partners who for 28 years have been loving on the Prospect neighborhood through all sorts of creative youth and family support.
I’m so honored to walk alongside these faithful community partners and inspiring students who are teaching us so much about what it means to love our neighbors while strengthening ties between the University and our surrounding community.
Perkins Fellows ‘25-’26
Abigail Elias, CALM
Sara Holt, Bread & Roses
Eujine Kim, International Neighbors
Sean Kim, McDonald House
Isabel McDaniel, Literacy Volunteers
Katie Rice, IRC
Mary Roper, CALM
Benjamin Tang, Haven
Elika Tofigh, CALM & Arts non profit
Camille Villalobos, CALM
Much love,
Christy
