— The Blueprint Model — The Blueprint Services —
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS
Monthly space to create open, curious, and encouraging conversations around equity in community engagement and to be in community with other like-minded people.
Curious Conversations take place the first Wednesday of each month and are casual one-hour learning sessions where VACV reflects on common questions we receive about community engagement. By offering this space for continual learning, we hope to build a network of like-minded individuals who want to practice equitable engagement with communities. Multiple VACV staff members provide their experiences, ensuring participants will hear diverse perspectives and solutions to common engagement challenges. We also appreciate when participants share their experiences and expertise. This space is truly for sharing and building community.
TIME COMMITMENT - 1 hour (12pm-1pm)
COST - Free. Registration is encouraged but not required. If you register you’ll get the reminder emails!
Invite Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83248523287 | Meeting ID: 832 4852 3287
2025 dATES + TOPICS
2.5.25 | Grieving the World as it Should Be
For many, this past year has felt really hard. At VACV we’ve had many joys, and also disappointments. Now, as the political landscape changes, we’re worried about our neighbors, our ability to continue this work, and ourselves. We know a better world is possible, and we’re grieving its delay. It’s tempting to push feelings of grief aside, and just get back to work, but we’ve learned that holding space and acknowledging that grief, the tension between the world as it is and the world as it should be, has its own benefits. Join us to learn how we’re holding space for our collective feelings. Register for February’s session here.
3.5.25 | White Dominant Culture Norms that are Impacting Your Work Environment
Have you ever stopped to consider where your institutional norms come from? Why do you get the amount of vacation and sick days that you do? Are you expected to answer calls after hours or on your days off? Have you ever worked from the hospital, and it wasn’t even considered weird? If you’ve even had a split second feeling of, “why is it like this,” this session is for you. We’re going to name and unpack which white dominant culture norms show up the most in our work, and how we’ve pivoted away from them for our staff and neighbors. Register for the March session here.
4.9.25 | Moving From Grief to Joy — How Does Joy Affect Our Brains?
We’ve had time to sit with our grief, but we can’t stay there. We have to be able to find and live in Joy. Did you know that joy affects our brains? In this session, you’ll hear from Dr. Lauren Whitehurst, cognitive neuroscientist, about the effects of joy, rest, and creativity have on our brains. And you’ll hear from Lea Whitehurst-Gibson about how finding joy amidst the chaos will sustain our movements towards justice and equity. Register for April’s session here.
5.7.25 | Pockets of Joy — Share with Us: What Brings You Joy?
In April, we heard from Dr. Lauren Whitehurst, cognitive neuroscientists, about the effects of joy on our brain. We learned that one of the best ways to find joy is being in community with others. Being together releases oxytocin, while suppressing cortisol, lowering stress and keeping you happy for longer. We also learned that in this time of turmoil, it’s important to find and sustain joy so we can continue to fortify ourselves to resist authoritarianism. In this session, we want to hear from you! What is bringing you joy right now? What community actions are bringing you joy, and what individual hobbies make you happy? Join us to share your joys and register for May’s session here!
6.4.25 | Reviving Youth Engagement: How to Keep Youth Connected After Your Program Ends
If you’ve ever struggled with keeping youth engaged after your program ends, this session is definitely for you! Shakirah Jones, our Youth Programs Coordinator, will share how she builds and sustains relationships with our youth participants, even after the program ends. You’ll learn why and how we involve youth in our decision-making processes, and how we’re opening space for youth in our previously “adult-only” working groups and the Steering Committee. Engaging youth and ensuring they feel like they have a voice is a learned skill, and we’re lucky to have Shakirah to share her wisdom! Register for the June session here.
7.9.25 | Climate Resilience: A Q&A with RVA Thrives Neighbors on their Greening Policy Work in Southside
Greening has always been a top priority for Southside neighbors; it was one of the main issues neighbors shared all the way back in 2017. What started as quarterly clean up days has transformed into community members working towards environmental justice for themselves and their neighbors on Southside. Join us for a session hosted by neighbors doing both the on the ground greening work, as well as greening policy work for their communities. Register for the July session here!
8.6.25 Housing Equity & Concrete Actions
VACV’s Steering Committee didn’t always have housing equity as a top priority, but as they worked to improve their neighborhoods from within, they began to worry about gentrification. The acute and ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic heightened this worry, along with stagnant wages, rising housing costs, and discrimination, especially towards our Hispanic neighbors. Join us to learn how we’re engaging neighbors around concrete actions for housing equity. Register for the August session here!
9.3.25 Power Sharing: Changing Leadership & Decision-Making Practices
At VACV, sharing institutional power with the community is one of our values. We’ve already structured the organization so that neighbors have a direct say in practices and the issues we take on. Our power philosophy is “we”-oriented, or leadership by the many, but not everyone has had experience exercising their power. Our mission is to prepare neighbors to step into their inherent power to lead community change, and we’re doing that through our newly established, bilingual Leadership Academy. Join us while our Spanish-speaking neighbors share their experiences with our leadership academy and to see how we’ve set up our bilingual space. Register for the September session here!
10.01.25 Institutional Allies --- Roads to Redemption & Action
Are you a good ally for community members and other community facing organizations? What does true allyship look like? In this session, we’re going to discuss the actions we’ve seen institutions take that make them a great ally, and also share some actions that make us think twice about institutional commitment to real change. Register for the October session here!
11.5.25 Is Your Institution Committed to Real Change?
Y’all it’s been…a year. We’ve seen the federal government place unprecedented restrictions and demands on public, private, and nongovernmental organizations, specifically around DEI, and anything else considered “woke.” Many of us have lost funding, and partners and clients have decided it’s too dangerous to commit to change right now. Yet this deep change work is needed now more than ever. Real change is not about embracing DEI (which we’ve seen can be ended without a second thought), it’s a deeper level of power sharing with communities that have been systematically disenfranchised by the current power structure. We can’t continue this way. In this session, you’ll learn how we’re rejecting the status quo, and see how you can too! Register for the November session here.
12.3.25 TBD