Confronting Racial Injustice in Housing and Neighborhoods, Monday, April 16, 5:30-8:00pm at Jefferson School, 233 4th Street NW. Explore how the deliberate use of zoning, eminent domain, property taxes, lending practices, and “urban renewal” removed African Americans from areas whites wanted to live in and shaped Charlottesville’s neighborhoods today. The legacy of these practices continues. This forum will include opportunities to connect with groups working to end racial disparities in housing and neighborhood development.

Charlottesville-area Immigrant Resource and Advocacy Coalition (CIRAC), is holding its quarterly meeting on Wed., April 25, 2018.  IX Park, 6:30 pm Volunteer Orientation for Transportation & Detention Visitation; 7:15 pm Forum: Immigration Policy Hits Home: What Can We Do? Each year, 50 of our Charlottesville neighbors are unjustly removed from their families and placed into deportation proceedings. Please join CIRAC and Sin Barreras, with speakers David Baluarte, Professor of Law at Washington & Lee University; Tanishka Cruz, Immigration Attorney and Lecturer at UVA; and Fanny Smedlie, founding Director of Sin Barreras/Without Barriers, at a forum to understand the Policies, Practices and Harm resulting from these removals. Join CIRAC in supporting the effort to end them. The 6:30 Volunteer Orientation is a great way to learn more about CIRAC, even if you can’t stay for the forum.

Join other PACEM Shelter supporters on April 29th from 2-5pm at the Barn at Pea Ridge Farm for a spring fundraiser. Tickets are $75 per person or $500 for a table of eight. Price includes food by C & O Restaurant, music by Michael Clem & Rusty Speidel, and beer from Devils Backbone Brewing Company & wine donated by the Charlottesville Cooking School. RSVP to . All proceeds benefit PACEM! To reserve your ticket call 434.973.1234 x121

OLLI recently hosted a lecture on “The Racial and Ethnic History of Charlottesville,” presented by Charlene Green (Manager for the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Human Rights). It was a standing-room only crowd, so OLLI has passed on this link to the video of the lecture: here

Community Corner:
Events in Charlottesville (unaffiliated with WPC) that may be of interest to congregants.

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center: “Day Soiree: 1968, The Movement Through Time” Saturday, April 7, 11 am – 3pm. A “kid-powered, family-friendly event” that will feature games, make-your-own picket signs, photo booth, food, bounce house, and more, with the theme of “looking back at the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and looking ahead to our future.” Facebook Event Page

UVA’s “Excellence Through Diversity” Series: Michael Sam
Thursday, April 12th, 6 P.M. – 7:30 P.M. McLeod Hall (202 Jeanette Lancaster Way, Charlottesville, VA 22903) UVA Engineering welcomes former NFL player and LGBTQ activist Michael Sam as part of Excellence Through Diversity Distinguished Learning Series. Facebook

SURJ Discussion Groups
Organizers and friends of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ Cville) are offering free eight week facilitated discussion groups to area residents. The groups serve as a kind of racial justice-oriented “couch to 5k” for people who identify as white or as having race and/or class privilege. If you see racial justice as important, want to be more involved, but don’t know where to start, these groups are for you. If you’re already involved, but you are looking for a space to grapple with your racial identity and its implications for your perceptions and behaviors, these groups are for you too.

Sign up here

“We Are Here, Diversity Festival” (with Khizr Khan), Saturday, April 14, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Ix Art Park.
Gather for this free event celebrating diversity with art, music, mural painting, food, and keynote speaker Khizr Khan. Facebook Event Page

 “Mapping African-American History at UVA.” Monday, April 23, at 2 p.m. This lecture, held in conjunction with Virginia Historic Garden Week, will take place in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Auditorium at UVA. “Mapping – African-American History at UVA” will reveal new insights into the University’s cultural landscape through the lens of the African-American experience. More info

Events in Charlottesville (unaffiliated with WPC) that may be of interest. 

March for Our Lives Charlottesville, Saturday, April 23, 2-4:00pm at Sprint Pavilion. Join together in rallying to demand that lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings. Facebook Event Page

SURJ Discussion Groups
Organizers and friends of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ Cville) are offering free eight week facilitated discussion groups to area residents. The groups serve as a kind of racial justice-oriented “couch to 5k” for people who identify as white or as having race and/or class privilege. If you see racial justice as important, want to be more involved, but don’t know where to start, these groups are for you. If you’re already involved, but you are looking for a space to grapple with your racial identity and its implications for your perceptions and behaviors, these groups are for you too.  Sign up here

UVA’s “Excellence Through Diversity” Series – Angela Davis 
Tuesday, March 27th, 6 P.M. – 7:30 P.M. UVA’s Old Cabell Hall
UVA Engineering welcomes scholar and activist Angela Davis as part of the Excellence Through Diversity Distinguished Learning Series. This event is free and open to the public. Facebook Event

The Alliance for Interfaith Ministries needs a volunteer treasurer.  AIM is all set up with online Quickbooks.  If you are interested, please contact Kim Fontaine, Director of AIM.  The job duties can be viewed by here .