Education

Improving our education system is fundamental to creating a Healthier Richmond. This is a huge task and our campaign will partner with others:

We are partnering with ArtsChange to create after school programs in the arts. The plan will be to bring these after school programs to all of Richmond’s schools. The programs will also continue our theme of job creation as we will hire artists from the Richmond community to serve as mentors and instructors to our students. This exciting program is just being formulated. If you are interested, please join our effort.

We are partnering with the Niroga Institute to bring instruction in Transformative Life Skills to our students. Transformative Life Skills are a combination of training in yoga, meditation and mindfulness. We are calling the program Richmond Arise! The idea is to have these programs available wherever our young people gather; in the schools, in the parks and recreation centers, and in the institutions of our juvenile criminal justice system. Transformative Life Skill training can improve self esteem, and self control and can lessen stress.

Our third partnership in the education area involves a partnership with RichmondBuild. A new program is being created where our high school students will receive training in the green economy. We will start by teaching energy conservation. The students will learn how to develop action plans to help make our homes and businesses more energy efficient by preventing energy loss. The second step in the program will be to train the students in weatherizing our homes and businesses. Each student in the program will be guaranteed a part-time job in this field if they stay in school.

These three plans only begin to scratch the surface of what we need to do. Please feel free to share your ideas on how we can improve our education system. Our children are our most important resource. During the course of a lifetime, a child who completes college will earn twice as much income as a child who does not.