The New Vision Civic League of East End

There are a number of community organizations in the area. The groups are roughly geographically based on the sub-neighborhods that make up Church Hill, but most seem to welcome anyone that wants to join and be a part of what is going on. There is a group for Church Hill proper (Church Hill Association (CHA)), a group for Union Hill (North of Broad Concerned Citizens Association), there is a group for north of Fairmont (Unity Civic Association), and, among others, there is the New Visions Civic League of East End (NVCL).

If you are a Richmond city resident, there is a page on the city’s site that can provide all sorts of city-held info about your address (or your neighbor!), including the name of your neighborhood and and civic association.

We belong to 2 of these groups — the Church Hill Association, and the New Visions Civic League of East End. The CHA seems to mostly represent the south of Broad St. area, but has a great/useful newsletter and a certain visibility. The NVCL represents the area north of Church Hill proper and east/north of Union Hill. The NVCL’s official boundaries are 25th St on the east, Jefferson Ave on the south, Mosby St to the west, and Fairmont to north. The NVCL includes a lot of the same area as the Union Hill group, though I’ve not sure how active they are anyway.

The NVCL is a very ‘hands-on’ organization… It was started back in the early ’90’s (and is still run) by two ladies (Mary Thompson and Augustine Carter) that have been in the neighborhood forever. The NVCL is plugged into the local city infrastructure in a wonderfully useful way. The NVCL works with Better Housing Coalition to help get new home owners into the neighborhood. We do neighborhood cleanups and ‘night out’. We have representatives that attend the various community and area meetings. If a NVCL member has a question or complaint, Mary knows someone that can help. They have done amazing work holding this area together for the past 10 years and it feels really good to be part of their positive experience.

If you are a Church Hill resident and would like to get to know the Church Hill that is north of M St/Jefferson Ave, join the NVCL. *Anyone* is welcome. It is through my contacts made at the NVCL that I have really felt like a part of the community around here. The NVCL meets 10am-noon on the first Sat of the month at Solomon Temple Church at 1118 N 20th Street. July’s meeting was pushed back a week for the holiday and will actually be help this coming Saturday (July 10th).