On an unseasonably warm Wednesday in October, we hosted 40 guests from around the country who were attending the annual Christian Community Development Association national gathering which happened to be in Richmond this past year. The theme for the conference was “Behold” and this was a special chance for people to ‘behold’ what’s happening in Charlottesville around the work of justice and peace. Their first stop was a tour of one of our partners, Abundant Life Ministries (CALM) followed by a lunch with Dr. Amy Sherman, one of CALM’s founders. They then came to the the Kindness Café where Christy Yates welcomed them and introduced them to the history and work of the Perkins Fellows program. Former Perkins Fellow and current Vintern, Fefe King shared how Perkins Fellows and attending the CCDA conference resulted in her switching her major to do the accelerated Batten School Masters in Public Policy and gave her encouragement through a community of faithful CCD workers around the country she can lean upon. Vice Provost for Academic Outreach, Louis Nelson shared what UVA is doing to develop students into engaged citizens through public service and finally Carolyn Mitchell Dillard explained the work of the UVA Center for Community Partnerships where she works. We ended the tour at the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers where TH friend DeTeasa Gathers (herself a descendent of an enslaved laborer) took us through a moving and itneractive experience of the memorial. What a gift to share the good work that is happening around campus & community engagement to help repair some of the deep-seeded wounds from the past.
