LYNCHBURG, Va. – Casual weekend conversations among leaders turned to action this week. The University of Lynchburg is announcing the launch of a collaboration between school and city leaders.
“Lynchburg Tomorrow started with the convening of just five people one Saturday morning late last year,” University of Lynchburg President Alison Morrison-Shetlar said.
School and city leaders have spent the past year coming up with a three-part plan to make a difference in the Hill City. The plan involves several organizations in the community.
“We have a lot of great work to do,” Superintendent of Lynchburg City Schools Crystal Edwards said. “If this pandemic taught us anything, it taught us the need to be collaborative. It taught us that we need everybody.”
“Lynchburg Tomorrow” will target three needs: access to healthy food, affordable health care and leadership development.
“Are we feeding people better, are we providing better housing, are we doing more for education? That needs to be measured,” CEO at Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation Bill Bodine said.
The foundation will provide funding to five nonprofits in the area to help tackle food insecurity. Those nonprofits include Red Truck Ministries, Meals on Wheels of Greater Lynchburg, Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Lynchburg Grows and Lynchburg Daily Bread.
“Lynchburg Tomorrow” has also received 40,000 pounds of canned goods donated by the local Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints. Nonprofits will distribute the food.
“As we are coming out of a pandemic, access to healthcare could not be more important,” CEO at Community Access Network Christina Delzingaro said.
The University of Lynchburg is enhancing its partnership with Community Access Network, a nonprofit health care provider on 5th St. University PA Medicine. Students will fill new roles in order to serve more patients.
“This partnership allows us to increase our capacity by 40%,” Delzingaro said.
The final step for “Lynchburg Tomorrow” is leadership development. Starting in the Diamond Hill and the White Rock Hill neighborhoods, 25 people will be selected for leadership training.
“We want people to say, ‘You know what, let’s see how Lynchburg did it,’” Edwards said. “That’s what we want to do.”
For city and school leaders, it’s only the beginning of lasting change in the Hill City.