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Hey, Richmond . . . 

It’s your mayor, Danny. In August, we celebrated a week of 804 Day activities, reminding ourselves of all the things that make this city so special.  

Balancing the need to preserve Richmond's unique spirit while moving toward all the goals we’ve yet to reach feels like the central charge for my work as your mayor. And that’s why getting the update to our zoning code right matters so much to me.  

On August 17th, we’ll be sharing the third draft of Code Refresh with you all. Changing something as big as a 50-year-old zoning code is hard, so it naturally takes a lot of questions, engagement, disagreement, and deep investment in the city we love to create this new draft. Richmonders agree that we need to address our affordable housing crisis, to protect our tree canopy, to prioritize pedestrians, and to equitably create opportunities for thriving all across our city. I'm excited to explain all the ways draft three addresses those shared hopes.

Ahead of that announcement, there’s plenty of other work happening around the city that I want you to see. In this issue, I’m thrilled to introduce you to the Resource Family Unit working to find homes for some of Richmond’s most vulnerable kids and the teams city-wide supporting the growth of Black-owned local businesses. And it’s great to have a chance to remind everyone to turn out to meaningful summer events like Summer on the Southside and the Down Home Family Reunion.  

Read on, and keep an eye out for more Code Refresh information on the 17th! 

-Danny

In this Issue

• City agencies share the unique and significant ways they support local, minority-owned businesses during Black Business Month.  
• Richmond’s foster care workers ramp up foster family recruitment ahead of fall information sessions.  
• Waste reduction experts want to learn what keeps residents from recycling. Share your experiences for a chance to win $100.  
• The Poet Laureates have a busy fall schedule. Find out where to catch them (and even share poetry of your own!)  

Black Business Month 

August is Black Business Month! As City Council and Mayor Avula reflected in a proclamation this month, Black Business Month is an opportunity for Richmonders to remember the legacy of people and places like Maggie L. Walker and Jackson Ward. It’s also a chance to celebrate and champion the black-owned businesses that shape Richmond’s economy.  

"Black-owned businesses have always been essential to Richmond’s economy," Richmond CAO Odie Donald II says. "They create jobs and strengthen the cultural and economic vibrancy that makes our city unique. The City is committed to helping entrepreneurs by removing barriers, improving access to resources, and ensuring Black business owners know where to turn for support."

At the City of Richmond, many agencies have responsibilities for supporting small and minority-owned businesses. During Black Business Month, we asked a few of the agencies with responsibilities for supporting small and minority-owned businesses to talk about the roles they play:

The Office of Equity and Inclusion

The Office of Equity and Inclusion works across City departments to help identify and address barriers, strengthen access to opportunities, and ensure that Black business owners’ experiences inform how the City serves them.

This month, OEI is partnering with the Office of Neighborhood Engagement to host a Black Business Month Pop-Up Market and Community Conversation at City Hall on Wednesday, August 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. In addition to inviting employees and community members to shop, eat, and support local Black-owned businesses, we are hosting a vendor breakfast and community conversation. This will allow us to hear directly from business owners about their needs, experiences with the City, and how we can better support Black businesses throughout the year. Stay tuned for more details! 

-Aneesah Smith, Equity and Inclusion Advisor, Office of Equity and Inclusion 

Office of Minority Business Development

Black-owned businesses bring unique products and services to our community. Through the Office of Minority Business Development (OMBD), we provide business education and training, technical assistance, networking opportunities, access to capital resources, and connections to City procurement opportunities. This work helps entrepreneurs start, strengthen, and grow their businesses. Visit our website to learn more about what’s available.   

-Pat Foster, Director, Office of Minority Business Development 

Department of Procurement Services 

Engaging Black-owned businesses helps the City promote fair access to contracting opportunities, inclusivity, and strong relationships within the business community. It creates meaningful opportunities for qualified businesses to compete for City contracts while building trust and strengthening a diverse and competitive supplier base. Our procurement outreach team regularly attends, supports, and coordinates events with internal and external partners to advocate for minority-owned businesses. Through these efforts, we provide resources and guidance to help businesses register as City suppliers, understand the procurement process, and identify opportunities to compete for City contracts. This proactive engagement helps create greater access to City contracting opportunities and strengthens relationships with Black-owned businesses and the broader business community. 

-Eric Adams, Business Relationship Manager, Department of Procurement Services 

Office of Community Wealth Building

The Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB) is helping tell a larger story about what it means to create opportunity, strengthen families and build lasting wealth in Richmond’s communities. The work goes beyond simply helping someone start or grow a business—it is about removing barriers, expanding access to opportunity, and creating pathways for people to build financial stability and generational wealth. At its heart, this work is about people: supporting residents in turning their ideas and hard work into sustainable businesses, creating opportunities for others, and ensuring that Black-owned businesses are an important part of the economic future and prosperity of the entire city.

For example, OCWB had the opportunity to work with United Virginia Foundation for our first Ideas to Impact entrepreneur/social enterprise program, which helped a dozen new Richmond business owners turn early ideas into stronger, more developed project concepts. For OCWB, the program offers a practical way to help business owners build confidence in their business and readiness for business advancement.

— Sherrilyn Hicks, Program Coordinator, Wealth Building 

Office of Sustainability

The Office of Sustainability supports Black-owned businesses in a few ways. We work with Black-owned and Black-led nonprofits through RVAgreen 2050, and we've done outreach to businesses affected by the foam ban and the five-cent plastic bag tax, including Black-owned restaurants and other small businesses. Making these connections helps businesses understand the policy changes and to reach out when they need support making these changes. A thriving Richmond depends on that kind of supportive and inclusive growth.  

— Michael Smart, Sustainability Engagement Manager, Office of Sustainability

Department of Economic Development

Black-owned businesses help create vibrant commercial corridors that make our city stronger. Economic Development connects entrepreneurs to funding opportunities and programs designed to help businesses start, grow, and remain in Richmond. Our team also works directly with businesses to navigate City (and, when appropriate, State) resources, identify opportunities, and make connections that can support their long-term success.  

— Bryonna Head, Marketing Manager, Department of Economic Development 

Calling all foster families 

Candice Fleming spends her days making sure Richmond’s kids have a safe home, and she needs your help.  

Candice and her coworkers make up Richmond’s Resource Family Unit, the team at the Department of Social Services that recruits, trains, and then places kids with foster families.  

“My staff is unique because we touch every child that comes into foster care,” Candice says. “We work with the children entering foster care and the kids that experience disruptions while they’re in foster care. We’re kind of like a middle man; while Child Protective Services is filing legal documentation and foster care workers are going to pick up the child, we are finding somewhere for that child to go.” 

In Richmond, there are currently more than 200 kids who’ve entered the foster care system, and there are just over 100 foster care families ready to welcome them. That means that less than half of the children who need safe homes are currently placed with families.  

Candice says that of her foster care families, about 40% are kinship homes. That means that a grandparent, and aunt or uncle, or even a beloved teacher or principal has agreed to house a child they already know. These families go through foster care training in order to prepare legally, financially, emotionally, and logistically to care for the child.  

The other 60% are “stranger” homes, families and individuals who participate in foster care training and certification to support any child who is placed with them. Most of these homes are actually located outside Richmond. Kids have a supportive home with these families, but they may end up having to change schools or having a harder time staying connected with biological family members who are further away.  

As this year’s cycle of information sessions and recruitment for new foster care families gets underway, Candice is hoping that Richmond residents interested in caring for our city’s kids at a vulnerable time in their life will jump in. “There’s an urgent need,” she emphasizes. Here’s what she wishes more people knew about the process:  

• The information sessions will help you decide if fostering’s the right fit for you. “The information sessions are mandatory, because we want people to know what they’re getting into,” Candice says. If you're even a little interested, you should come check one out and bring your questions.  
• Training is extensive (but free). Candice’s team uses a national curriculum and meets with prospective foster families for six weeks. Participants learn about trauma-informed care and the unique needs that foster children may have as they enter a new home. Candice is especially fond of a final celebratory panel at the end of training that features current foster families and former foster youth: “If our foster parents don’t remember anything else after training, they remember the panel.”  
• Support and review continue after training. Before Social Services places a child in a foster home, staff conduct multiple home visits, help families complete the needed paperwork and reference checks, and gets to know you and your family to help make the right placements. “We are trusting you to step in where a parent can’t, so we have to do a good job selecting and placing,” Candice says.  
• Fostering doesn’t mean adopting. Reunification—helping families get back to a place where they’re able to care for and raise their children—is a major goal for Social Services. Foster families support the child while parents work toward that goal. Candice says foster families can often help a child stay connected to their biological family by making visits possible. Even if a stay in a foster home is temporary, the impact of that care and connection can be permanent. 
• Foster kids have a range of needs. When the Resource Family Unit works on placement, they’re thinking about who might be able to care for an infant that needs round-the-clock care or a child with behavioral needs. They’re also looking for families ready to welcome older children or sibling sets. Kids with these needs are sometimes harder to place, so if you’re someone experienced with kids, willing to foster a child 8 or older, or with capacity to support multiple children, Candice wants to recruit you!  

To learn more, start with a required virtual information session:  

Wednesday, September 16, 6 to 8 p.m. (virtual) 

Tuesday, September 29, 6 to 8 p.m. (virtual) 

Register for a session by calling 804-646-KIDS (5437) or emailing adedayo.sodeinde@rva.gov. 

Help Us Help You: Recycling Edition 

What makes it hard or difficult to recycle? The Central Virginia Waste Management Authority (CVWMA) and PlanRVA have teamed up to learn some of the answers to this important question. They’re working on a study about barriers in household recycling. Help these teams learn from your experience by taking the 5-minute survey and sharing with friends and neighbors. The survey is open through August 31, and we’ll all get to learn about the results this fall.  

Get ready for a Poet Laureate Fall

Richmond’s Poet Laureates Rosa Castellano and Maurice “MoeFlowz” Brown have a busy September ahead, and so does the rest of Richmond’s literary arts community! With a ton of open mics, readings, and classes happening around town, check out just a few places where you might see Rosa and Moe around Richmond and beyond: 



Sunday, September 6: Moe hosts the monthly Writer’s Den Poetry Slam returns at Addis Ethiopian Restaurant for another high-energy night of competitive poetry and community. Doors open at 7 PM, the show begins at 8 PM, and admission is $10.

Wednesday, September 9: Rosa reads in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Broadway debut of For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange. 6 to 7:30 p.m., online, Sundress Publications. Register for the reading and workshop. 

Friday, September 11: Rosa hosts an in-person reading and open mic alongside Allison Titus, who co-edited the new poetry anthology A New Sentience: Reimagining Animal Poetry. At the new Richmond Animal Care and Control space at 2310 W. Cary. 6:30 p.m.; bring a poem that celebrates animal life to share!  

Sunday, September 13: Moe's hosting again as The Writer’s Den returns to Resist Booksellers in Petersburg for an open mic centered on community, creativity, and connection. Featuring Breeze the Poet, the evening welcomes poets, writers, performers, and poetry lovers to experience live spoken word in an intimate bookstore setting. Doors open at 6 PM, the show begins at 7 PM, and admission is $10.

September 14-18: The Richmond Poet Laureate Tour brings MoeFlowz into Richmond Public Schools for a week of poetry, performance, and student engagement. Sponsored by The Writer’s Den, the tour introduces students to RPS poetry opportunities through live performances, program information, and poetry start-up kits. The goal is to inspire young writers, encourage participation, and help students recognize the power and possibilities within their own voices.

Saturday, September 19: VisArts Writing Community Write-In (1:30 to 4: 30 p.m.) and Teacher Reading (5:30 p.m.). Visual Arts Cultural Center, 1812 W. Main Street. “This is a great way to meet teachers and hear about learning opportunities, but also to meet and be in community with other writers,” Rosa says. “Come write and snack, and then stay for the reading!”  

Friday, September 25, through Sunday, September 27: Both Moe and Rosa will be at the James River Writers Conference at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Moe teaches “Poetry as Power: Using Your Voice Before the World Gives You Permission,” Rosa will sit on a panel and staff a “Lucy Booth” to answer poetry question’s a la the Charlie Brown psychiatry booth, and they’ll both be around for the lunchtime poetry reading on Sunday.

Keep up with the Laureates at Richmond’s Poet Laureate website, which also features event calendars and resources.  

Photos of the Month