UVA groups launch equity website for Charlottesville-area community

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A few groups at the University of Virginia just launched an equity website.

The Cville Education Equity collaborated with Youth-Nex, Madison House, and the Equity Center offers resources for teachers and families across the Charlottesville area. The website offers anti-racist curriculum for teachers, virtual education help for families, and food resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

“Basically, we were all having a conversation about how to help area youth and families at this time," UVA Equity Center Director of Community Research Sherica Jones-Lewis said.

The primary focus is on students who are most at risk of falling further behind due to the anything but normal school year.

“We also realize that in order to support those students we have to support the people who support them, so we also had to reach out to families and community organizations,” Jones-Lewis said.

A few of those community organizations are area food banks and other resources for food insecure families.

There are resources for those who need money for other needs, too.

“There is actually a hot line that people can call if they need immediate financial assistance, so that kind of falls in the same realm right where some people are losing their homes at this point because they can’t afford to pay rent and/or they don’t have enough electricity to cook the food that they are getting,” Jones-Lewis said.

With the national focus on racial equity, there is a section devoted to helping teachers being more culturally responsive.

“We want everyone to be reflected in the content that they’re learning, and so culturally responsive teaching is just for our teachers and our educators to have an awareness in how every student fits into the content at that time,” Charlottesville City Schools Supervisor of Equity and Inclusion Denise Johnson said. “Community partnerships and our working together is essential now more than ever, and so at this point it really does take a village to raise each one of our students."

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