Without you, local news wouldn’t exist.

It might not come as a surprise to you that our newsroom is often contacted by elected officials, public relations professionals and the communications staff of large organizations. They are used to interacting with the media, and we appreciate their updates and press releases about news that affects people in central Virginia. 

But Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven newsroom, so we want to hear from a variety of residents across our region. We want to hear from people who might have never spoken to a reporter for a news story before.

Listening to the central Virginia communities we serve is crucial to our work, which means it’s really important that you know what to expect when you talk with someone from our newsroom. So, we created a guide.

This guide explains our reporting process and how we talk with community members to craft thoughtful and accurate articles that we hope you can use. We created it with input from our editorial team and by drawing on excellent resources from our peers, including Outlier Media in Detroit and MLK50 in Memphis.

We are committed to being transparent about our reporting and how we encourage civic participation through high-quality, local news accessible (for free!) to all central Virginians.

So we hope you visit, share, bookmark — and feel confident when you connect with us about what’s important to you. This guide is organized in the order that we typically produce stories, from reaching out to community members, to crafting an article to hitting “send” on our newsletter to seeking your feedback, then starting all over again. (Subscribe for free!)

We’re a small newsroom, so we try to maximize our impact by focusing on voices and stories that are not getting much coverage elsewhere, and we try to avoid repeating stories covered by the many other talented local news organizations in central Virginia.

Charlottesville Tomorrow Managing Editor
Akash Sinha

Connect: Let’s get in touch

A conversation with a reporter generally begins one of two ways: you reach out to us or we reach out to you.

Any person Charlottesville Tomorrow’s reporters and editors speak with during the reporting process is a “source.” (Editors mostly edit and fact-check, but sometimes report too.)

For some people, it can be tricky to decide whether or not to talk to a reporter. We know that not everyone has had great experiences and that some people feel that news organizations have not represented them fairly. Historically and to this day, people of color, folks with lower incomes and other vulnerable communities often experience exploitative practices by the media. (If you’re interested in American media history, Media 2070 is a great place to start. If you’re ready for a book, check out News For All the People.)

If a reporter reaches out to you, from Charlottesville Tomorrow or anywhere, remember that you have the power to ask questions and decide whether the interview is right for you. You can determine how you would like to participate and tell the reporter if there is anything that would make you more comfortable. Lewis Raven Wallace wrote a guide for MLK 50, a nonprofit newsroom based in Memphis, which is a helpful resource if you are thinking about talking to a reporter.

One of MLK50’s tips is to remember that journalists are people — at Charlottesville Tomorrow, they are often your neighbors. Community members are both our “sources” and our neighbors.

“I love my community and believe that people should be heard, especially people who have been ignored, whose opinions and experiences have not been lifted up,” said Neighborhoods Reporter Erin O’Hare.

We are invested in improving life across the region and know that independent journalism can help, even when people disagree. But we also understand when people prefer not to grant an interview.

When you contact us+

We love getting story ideas from you! Many of our articles start with community members reaching out to us. We receive hundreds of tips each month and read every tip and do our best to get back to you. Sometimes a reporter follows up for more information.

The hardest part of our job, though, is deciding what not to cover. If we don’t report on news that is important to you, it could be for a variety of reasons. We carefully consider factors like how the news fits into our reporting areas, what else our editors and reporters are already working on, and what’s already been covered by other local outlets.

The tips we are more likely to report on are about issues that directly affect you and that you are ready to speak about on the record. We prioritize reporting that is useful not just to the person who made the tip, but also to more of our central Virginia communities. We focus on specific subject areas, which you can see on our website.

“We’re a small newsroom, so we try to maximize our impact by focusing on voices and stories that are not getting much coverage elsewhere, and we try to avoid repeating stories covered by the many other talented local news organizations in central Virginia,” said Managing Editor Akash Sinha.

To share a story idea with Charlottesville Tomorrow, fill out this contact form.

Prefer to leave us a voice message or send a text?

Call (434) 218-3649 and give us as much information as you can in your message. You can also reach our newsroom on Signal at (434) 218-3649 or @cvilletomorrow.05. Signal is a chat and voice app for your smartphone that has end-to-end encryption and is run by a nonprofit organization.

When we contact you+

Reporters might reach out to you for a variety of reasons. They could be exploring a new reporting idea. They might have a specific article with a deadline that’s coming up, or be working on a long project and researching over several months. Or, they might just need background information on their topic. They might just want to meet you to hear about what is happening in your life and what matters to you. These kinds of informal meetings with members of the community guide and inform our reporting.

Our reporters might contact you via email, phone, through your website, on social media, or in person at events, meetings or when they bump into you in the neighborhood. We often meet potential sources at public gatherings, ask for contact information and then follow up later.

Our reporters do their best to explain why they are reaching out, whether they have questions for an article or are looking to understand a topic more broadly.

Key Takeaways

• You can submit ideas to Charlottesville Tomorrow’s newsroom via our online form or by phone at (434) 218-3649 or via Signal at the same number or @cvilletomorrow.05.
• Reporters reach out for a variety of reasons, from getting general background information to requesting in-depth interviews. 
• Remember that you have the power to ask questions and decide whether the interview is right for you.

Report: You talk, we listen

“What do reporters do? Listen,” said reporter O’Hare. “It’s something that our newsroom emphasizes.”

Conversations with Charlottesville Tomorrow reporters happen via email, phone, video chat or in person. There might be a sit-down interview or a quick, back-and-forth by email or text message. 

Key Takeaways

• At Charlottesville Tomorrow, we want to hear what you think is important in central Virginia, especially if it directly affects you. We are more likely to report on an issue if you speak on the record, if it fits in our coverage areas and if it affects many people.
• Ask reporters about how the information you share will be used before you answer questions. If you are speaking to a reporter, you should assume that you are “on the record” and that you will be quoted or paraphrased with your name, unless you and the reporter agree otherwise.
• We do not grant public officials the option to be “off the record” unless they are a whistleblower.
• Reporters might repeat questions and ask for documentation; this is part of the fact-checking process.
• Reporters do not pay sources to avoid conflicts of interest.
• If you are concerned that being quoted in an article will expose you to physical, financial, legal or some other sort of risk, you can discuss being an anonymous source with a reporter.

Edit: How we make articles stronger

When a reporter writes the first version of their article, the writing process is far from over. Editors might find information gaps in the article, ask for more perspectives or additional reporting. The reporter might schedule new interviews or reach back out to sources for more information.

There are often multiple drafts of an article before it is ready to publish. Editors will also copy edit, reviewing for clarity, typos, grammar and other issues. Longer pieces are reviewed by multiple editors.

Key Takeaways

• The editing process can be long, especially for complicated stories. Sometimes you might talk to a reporter, but not see a story on the subject for some time.
• Articles often change significantly during the reporting and editing process. Sometimes you might talk to a reporter, but ultimately an article on a subject doesn’t run. We know that can be frustrating, but please know that it’s not personal.
• A big part of editing is checking the facts  — more than anything, we’re focused on getting the story right. If you see an error, please let us know!

Publish: Just the beginning

Charlottesville Tomorrow publishes our reporting on our website. We depend on the communities we serve to share this work and help us reach the people who can best use the information that is shared.

We reach thousands of your central Virginia neighbors via our email newsletters. (Subscribe for free!) Some people see articles through apps and social media, like Apple News, Google News and Newsbreak. You might also see our work in news media, through partnerships such as Charlottesville Inclusive Media. We also partner with some news organizations that share our work with people around the country.

But we know that once your story is included in a published report, that might be just the beginning. We hope you will continue to let us know how our work impacts you and what is important to you going forward.

Key Takeaways

• Charlottesville Tomorrow publishes articles on our website and shares them in many ways, such as email newsletters, social media, apps and with our partners.
• We also depend on you to help us reach the people who can most use the information we report.

Feedback: Tell us what you think

After the reporting process, we hope you — our community members — will stay in touch about what comes next. Charlottesville Tomorrow invests in following subjects and issues over time. It’s rare that we do a single story and then never return to the topic again.

We also depend on community feedback to decide what to cover and to make sure as we grow that we are covering the topics most important to central Virginians. If you have a news tip, story idea, question or would like to get in touch, contact us via our online forms. If you want to chat about what you look for in local news, schedule some time with our community editor.

Want to tell your own story? Consider submitting an idea for the First Person series, an initiative of our partners in Charlottesville Inclusive Media. 

Charlottesville Tomorrow believes in local news that informs and serves everyone, puts the people most impacted at the center of our reporting, and helps to create stronger, healthier, more connected communities. Join us in supporting this vision!

Key Takeaways

• Charlottesville Tomorrow’s reporting depends on community input and feedback.
• If you have a story idea or questions for us, contact us via our online forms.
• Want to tell your own story? Consider submitting an idea to the First Person series.

Newsroom Roles

Who is in the newsroom? Here are some people you might meet.

Journalism Glossary

What are those reporters on about? Here are some phrases you might hear.

The post Ever wonder how an idea becomes a published article? Check out this guide. appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Oversight Board (PCOB) has officially asked City Council to change its oversight model, which would include giving up its independent investigative powers.

Over the past few months, the board, comprised of civilian volunteers and its interim director, have been working on draft changes to the City ordinance governing PCOB’s structure, authority and functions to address the roadblocks it has faced since its founding.

The PCOB’s current model, known as a “mixed model,” asks it to do everything — investigate complaints, audit internal police investigations, analyze policing practices and systemic trends and suggest policy changes — without accounting for time, financial, and legal constraints. Current and former leadership told Charlottesville Tomorrow that this approach simply doesn’t work.

The investigative function, which was at the heart of the vision for the board when it was first conceived in 2017, never materialized due to a wide range of practical and legal limitations. The PCOB has not completed a single investigation or hearing in its existence.

“That model has presented significant, insurmountable barriers to implementation,” Jeffrey Fracher, the PCOB chair, told the City Council during the May 18 meeting. So the PCOB proposed to drop the investigative component, formalizing the way it has been functioning in practice.

“Is not a retreat from oversight. It provides for more oversight at the end of the day, not less,” said Fracher. “It is a refocusing of our oversight role as an achievable, sustainable, and actionable set of procedures under Virginia law within the realities of the local statute, constitutional issues, employment issues, police union issues, the list goes on and on.”

City Councilor Michael Payne acknowledged that not being able to perform independent investigations undermines the PCOB’s credibility within the community and asked why public hearings that the community wanted were not an option.

While the PCOB faces multiple obstacles to conducting independent investigations, the primary challenge is the board’s inability to grant Garrity Rights, which offer officers protection against self-incrimination. Offering this protection is standard procedure in administrative investigations. 

In order to resolve this, the City would have to not only amend its collective bargaining agreement with the Charlottesville Police Department, but seek legislative changes to police oversight at the state level.

The draft presented to City Council also brings together all the documents that govern the PCOB into one place for clarity and makes recommendations on who could serve on the volunteer board, Interim Director James Walker said. The board would keep its subpoena powers, but give up the right to make recommendations on disciplining officers in cases of misconduct. In practice, the PCOB has not issued recommendations on disciplining officers because they do not have adequate time to investigate and submit their recommendations before the police chief makes a disciplinary decision. The board would retain its ability to make CPD policy recommendations.

“Some of these changes are probably not of interest to some of our community members. We understand that. And that’s why I’m asking those community members — have the conversation with us, speak to board members, come to our meetings, share those opinions, help us direct our work,” said Walker.

The draft ordinance changes are now under review by the Charlottesville City Attorney’s office and PCOB’s independent legal counsel. City Manager Sam Sanders and Police Chief Michael Kochis have already provided their input, Fracher said.

At the same time, the PCOB is collecting community feedback about the proposed changes. Board members reached out to neighborhood associations, community groups, the People’s Coalition that led the community activism for the creation of the board, and other organizations, Fracher told Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The board is asking for input and feedback, answering questions and concerns, and keeping a log of what it is hearing to later present to the City Council.

“We’re gonna get some pushback. We know that there are folks that still want the original model, but it’s just not feasible. It just can’t be done for any host of reasons that I hope we made clear to Council on Monday,” said Fracher.

After the City Attorney and PCOB attorney are done with their review of the draft, which is roughly 40 pages, Fracher said, there would be a Council reading where members would consider the proposal, feedback and any possible changes.

Fracher said the City Manager hopes for that reading to occur sometime in July or August, but the timing is out of the board’s control.

“We have really no control over their timeline,” said Fracher.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on May 22, 2026, to correct Jeffrey Fracher’s role as chair of the Charlottesville Police Civilian Oversight Board.

The post Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Oversight Board seeks to drop investigative powers appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Swing by our table at the VeryAsian VA Celebration at Friday’s After Five on Friday, May 22 on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

The Charlottesville Tomorrow team will be at the 5th Annual VeryAsian VA Celebration, a festival that celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.

Charlottesville Tomorrow’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Angilee Shah and Managing Editor Akash Sinha will be representing and mingling. Visit us and learn more about community-driven journalism, how to submit a story idea, our 2026 Voter Guide and more. We love hearing directly from community members, especially in person!

The event will feature live music, dance performances, art, and food and drink. 

Want to learn more about Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders in our community? Check out mini profiles on VeryAsian VA’s Instagram.

The post Meet Charlottesville Tomorrow editors at the VeryAsian VA Celebration at Fridays after Five appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Charlottesville Tomorrow is proud to be a leader in nonprofit, local news. Our newsroom staff often presents on community-driven journalism at national, statewide and local events. In 2025, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Angilee Shah and Product and Technology Director Ashley Harper spoke at national conferences about focusing on community impact rather than chasing audience traffic or “clicks.”

This Thursday, May 21, Neighborhoods Reporter Erin O’Hare will be speaking at “Who’s telling your story?”, a conversation sponsored by the Virginia Local News Project, an initiative of the Virginia Press Association. 

In her role, O’Hare covers housing and affordability, public resources like transportation and parks, and local history. She has been reporting in Charlottesville for the last 15 years, five of them with Charlottesville Tomorrow. O’Hare will speak on a panel with Shayla Washington, the executive director of Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH), who invited her to participate as a local news reporter who prioritizes engaging nonprofit and community-based organizations.

As part of her reporting, O’Hare often speaks with leaders at housing organizations to keep a pulse on news related to affordability and homelessness, including Washington.

“There’s so much misinformation about homelessness, specifically,” said O’Hare. She said that speaking with leaders of organizations that serve unhoused community members — and with those actually experiencing homelessness — paints a fuller picture of what’s going on and promotes a nuanced understanding of the issue that avoids perpetuating myths or stoking inflammatory rhetoric.

“One of my goals when I began working for BRACH was to increase the visibility of the work we’re doing for the homeless Continuum of Care,” said Washington. (The Continuum of Care refers to cross-organizational coordination among service providers addressing homelessness across the region.) “I’m excited for this panel to discuss our collaboration, because it’s so important to highlight in a world full of noise and misinformation.”. 

Washington recently spoke at the annual “state of homelessness” presentation to Charlottesville City Council on May 5, which O’Hare covered for Charlottesville Tomorrow. 

“We don’t report on the community, rather, we report for and, perhaps most importantly, with them. I am constantly learning from people like Shayla about what’s going on in our area,” said O’Hare. “I’m able to share that knowledge with the broader community only because these folks give me their time. My byline might be on an article, but community members’ voices and experiences make the article what it is.”

The upcoming conversation “brings journalists and nonprofit leaders into the same room for a candid conversation about how stories get picked up, what makes something newsworthy, and how to build stronger relationships with local media,” according to the event webpage. On Facebook, organizers describe the panel as a “discussion on how local media and nonprofits can work together to elevate important community stories.”

In 2025, O’Hare received the Institute for Nonprofit News Breaking Barriers Award for her reporting on housing access in the Charlottesville area, including her coverage of Carlton Mobile Home Park, the Cavalier Crossing complex and Midway Manor apartments. 

In 2024, O’Hare and democracy editor Jessie Higgins were recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists Washington D.C. chapter for their coverage of the Market Street Park encampment and our community’s understanding of housing insecurity. O’Hare has also received numerous Virginia Press Association awards, including First Place in Government Writing across all news categories in 2022.

O’Hare was also central to creating the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Housing Resources Guide in partnership with over 50 representatives from community organizations. The Guide was released in February 2025. Advocates and community members can use the guide to get information about private and public programs, financial assistance and other resources related to housing.

In addition to O’Hare and Washington, the panel will include news and nonprofit leaders Tom Lappas, the founder, publisher and editor of Henrico Citizen; Michael Phillips, founding editor of The Richmonder; Encarnacion Pyle, executive editor and Virginia state editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch; Mary Dunne Stewart, president and CEO of Greater Richmond Fit4Kids; and Samantha Willis, editor-in-chief of Virginia Mercury. The conversation will be moderated by Betsy Edwards, executive director of the Virginia Local News Project. 

The Virginia Local News Project, formerly the Virginia Press Foundation, is a project of Virginia Press Association. Charlottesville Tomorrow is a member of the Virginia Press Association.

The post Charlottesville Tomorrow housing reporter to speak at a panel on news and nonprofits in Virginia appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to halt a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that nullified the state’s April 21 redistricting election. The decision marks an end to the fight over redrawing Virginia’s congressional district lines in the leadup to the November elections.

On May 8, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the General Assembly violated the state constitution when it tried to redraw congressional districts, effectively voiding the results of a special election in which Virginians narrowly approved the redistricting referendum. 

Virginia Democrats responded with a request to the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a stay pausing the state ruling while they prepared to file an appeal. On Friday, May 15, however, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous, one-sentence ruling denying the stay without further comment.

According to reporting from CNN and other outlets, the request for a stay was seen as a longshot attempt to be able to use the newly drawn district map, which favored Democrats, in the November elections. WTOP reported that even before the ruling had occurred, Gov. Abigail Spanberger signaled the end of the redistricting battle during a visit to Fairfax on May 13, saying that the state’s May 12 deadline to make any changes to the map had passed and that the 2026 elections would take place according to the old map.

For Virginia voters and candidates, the U.S. Supreme Court decision means that the upcoming elections will move forward with the same map that has been in place since it was adopted in 2021.

Virginia Democrat’s redistricting attempt occurs in the larger context of a nationwide fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2025, President Donald Trump urged Republican politicians to redraw their lines to favor the party ahead of the 2026 midterms. By August, Texas became the first state to do so, redrawing five House districts currently represented by Democrats to lean more Republican.

Since then, both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have been hurrying to redraw district lines to increase their own parties’ representation in Congress. The technical term for that tactic is gerrymandering, or the strategic manipulation of district boundaries to give one political party or group an unfair advantage over another. 

Organizations like the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center argue that gerrymandering creates disparities in representation and can discourage voters from participating in elections, leading to lower turnout. ABC News recently reported that up to a third of Congressional Black Caucus members across the country are at risk of losing their seats as a result of the redistricting fight.

Under the current map, Virginia has a nearly even distribution of House districts between the two parties, with 6 Democrat-leaning districts and 5 Republican-leaning districts. The new map struck down by the courts would have had a 10-1 ratio of Democrat versus Republican districts.

The decision also comes as a blow to Democrats in the nationwide battle over attempts to limit aspects of the Voting Rights Act, particularly Section 2, which prohibits voting practices that contribute to race-based discrimination. In late April, a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority determined that courts can no longer use race as the primary factor to require creating new majority-minority districts, raising the threshold for a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to proof of intentional discrimination.

According to a report from NPR, The U.S. Supreme Court sent two additional cases involving Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act back to lower courts on Monday, May 18, potentially limiting the ability of individuals to bring lawsuits to enforce the act.

While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.

The post Virginia’s redistricting fight is over after U.S. Supreme Court declines to intervene appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Later this summer, residents of Southwood will be able to access affordable early childhood education without having to go too far. The Early Learning Center at Hickory Hope in the Albemarle County community opens its doors and begins serving the area starting August 1. The center will provide bilingual early childhood education and care for children between the ages of 3 and 5.

Suzanne Bowers, who became the executive director of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency (MACAA) in October 2025, said this is a years-long project that is finally coming to fruition.

The Center will provide early childhood education to students Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., except major holidays. They will also provide free meals from the local nonprofit New Hill Development Corporation via their Beacon School Bitez program.

The Early Learning Center is the result of the tireless effort by MACAA, which rented the space in Southwood from the Piedmont Housing Alliance. With the guidance of the Montessori Science Program at the University of Virginia, they will provide students with an activities-based, hands-on education on a sliding scale, based on the families’ income. Classes will be provided in two languages: Spanish and English.

Bowers said operating on a sliding scale isn’t common in early education, nor is offering bilingual education. There are several early childhood education centers in the Charlottesville area that offer bilingual services, and at least one, the Westminster Child Care Center, offers sliding scale tuition. But Bowers said there isn’t one that does both.

“When you add in the bilingual component and to be doing it right here in the neighborhood, I think it’s so exciting to me,” Bowers said of the new Center.

MACAA is a nonprofit organization that has a mission to help people move out of poverty through education. They previously provided childcare services to Southwood residents with Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Those programs closed abruptly in 2024, leaving nearly 200 families without daycare. MACAA relinquished federal funding to run nine local programs because they were unable to successfully provide for the “children we are obligated to serve.” Their programs were found to have not met state and federal standards. Their board said then that they would try to build up programs again.

Under new leadership, MACAA is ready to offer these services again. Bowers hopes that the new leadership within MACAA will reassure the community that they won’t have the same problems again.

“With new management, and mostly new staff and board, different funding sources and financial model, and significant operational improvements, we look forward to being able to serve Southwood with a small-scale, high-quality program,” she wrote in an email.

She also said that funding for the Center has been provided in several ways that should create greater sustainability. They’ve gotten Community Services Block Grant funds, made at the federal level by the Department of Health and Human Services and then disbursed by the state with the purpose of alleviating poverty. These funds are helping them hire a director of childhood services. But they’ve also secured donations and partnerships,

“Community investment has played a vital role in our launch, with local partners contributing dedicated fundraising efforts and in‑kind donations that have fully outfitted our classrooms to meet rigorous Montessori standards, including all necessary specialized educational materials,” Bowers wrote.

MACAA’s most recent publicly available tax filings indicate they had over $3 million in revenue 2024, and over $1 million in 2025. You can view the filing on Pro Publica’s Nonprofit Explorer tool.

“We are giving parents the opportunity to go to work, or get a job, because their kids are in affordable care,” said Bowers. “This is the most important kind of foundation you could have to really create maximum benefit. And then, when you do that, then the families will all benefit. And these kids grow up to be active members in their communities, and they have that solid foundation.”

But the Early Childhood Learning Center is still searching for at least five teachers to hire, both full and part time, as well as substitute teachers, said Jean Peters, the director of educational programming at MACAA. They hope that Southwood residents who are interested in becoming early childhood educators will apply. Peters added that some residents have expressed interest, they haven’t started interviewing candidates yet.  

“There is a significant shortage of early childhood educators, both locally and across the country,” said Peters. “This work is deeply rewarding, but also extremely demanding. It requires a high level of skill, commitment, and specialized training, not to mention a great deal of patience. We talk often about ‘growing our own’ teacher pipeline. Our goal is to cultivate educators from within the very communities we serve, creating strong connections between families, children, and the adults who guide them.”

While they continue their search, Peters will step in as “guide,” what teachers are called in the Montessori program.

An early childhood educator in the state of Virginia must pass a background check, have a high school diploma and be certified in first aid and CPR. Those interested in becoming a guide for the Center will also have to attend a Montessori teacher preparation program at the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, recognized by the Virginia Board of Education.

The community of Southwood has gone through some changes since 2007. That year, about 1,500 residents were at risk of losing their homes after the mobile park they lived in was put up for sale. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville acquired the land and redeveloped it with the residents; construction broke ground in 2020 and continues today. In 2025, Southwood and other low-income housing projects faced challenges when federal funding for community projects was cut.

Now, Peters and Bowers hope that they find the teachers among Southwood’s residents.

“Nobody is better than others, getting to go to a better school because they have more money,” said Bowers. “This just kind of levels the playing field for everyone. And I think that’s just really important, and hopefully it’s something that everyone will feel and see the value of.”

The post After closing childcare centers across central Virginia in 2024, this nonprofit is opening a new center in Southwood appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The Virginia Department of Health has declared a measles outbreak in Buckingham County with 12 confirmed cases, according to the agency’s statement released Tuesday.

“No patients reported recent travel. Without travel, the timing of these cases suggests local transmission,” the release said. “There are likely more measles cases than have been reported.”

The first confirmed case in Buckingham County, made public May 8, was a child aged 5-12 with no known history of recent travel or exposure to measles, meaning the child was infected locally.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that infects nine out of 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with it. One in five infected people requires hospitalization. It spreads through respiratory droplets from an infected person when they cough, sneeze or speak. The virus can live on surfaces for up to two hours.

It is also a preventable disease with two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine being 97% effective against measles.

With 12 cases, Buckingham County is experiencing an outbreak.

To classify a cluster of measles cases as an outbreak, at least three cases must be epidemiologically linked, said Emily Rich, a vaccine-preventable disease epidemiologist at the Virginia Department of Health, who explained this in a statement last year when there was a threat of an outbreak.

Virginia health officials encourage everyone connected to or visiting Buckingham County to check their MMR vaccination status. In addition to routine vaccination recommendations, the VDH also issued additional vaccination recommendations.

While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.

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On Monday, May 4, four local nonprofit homeless service providers gave their annual “state of homelessness” presentation to Charlottesville City Council.

And they were unhappy to report — once again — that in the past year, the state of homelessness has gotten worse..

Despite increased collaboration among their organizations — the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH), People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM), The Haven and The Salvation Army — and some positive outcomes, more people in the community are experiencing homelessness. 

Service providers were pained to have to deliver that news, and city officials looked upset upon hearing it.

“We’ve seen an increase in numbers across the board,” Shayla Washington, BRACH’s executive director, told city officials, a sad expression flashing across her face. BRACH is a nonprofit organization that helps coordinate efforts among the area’s homeless assistance agencies.

“I think the overarching message is, we’re all working together, but there’s still a greater need than what we can achieve as single entities,” said Washington. “It’s increasing incrementally every year. The numbers are not going down.”

That’s clear to many community members, including the most powerful city official.

In the wake of a tent encampment at Market Street Park in late summer 2023, City Manager Sam Sanders introduced a “homeless intervention strategy” in October 2023 and promised a location for a permanent overnight low-barrier shelter, something service providers have been requesting for years.

In late 2025, City Council signed off on the purchase of a building at 2000 Holiday Drive for that purpose. BRACH, PACEM and The Haven are collaborating with city staff on an operating plan for that shelter, which won’t open for a few years.

And over the last few months, a tent encampment of dozens of unhoused community members has grown alongside the Charlottesville bank of the Rivanna River, near Free Bridge on Pantops. On top of running their organizations and Holiday Drive shelter planning, service providers are trying to help the city figure out a way to more safely shelter these people.

But service providers have to keep the long view in mind, too, and that requires an altogether different — and more systemic — approach. They have to manage all this with relatively few staff relative to the number of people needing assistance.

Washington and her fellow service providers were clear on what they feel the community needs to address this growing issue: more low-cost housing,housing subsidies and vouchers, rental assistance, case management and mental healthcare. That would require continued coordination between service providers and, because housing subsidies and rental assistance in particular are costly, more money. That money could come from private donors; from taxpayers, if local, state and federal governments chip in; or some combination thereof.

Without those, they said, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the community will probably continue to rise, especially as housing costs increase faster than wages and the federal government moves to drastically reduce funding for housing assistance programs of various kinds, including ones that help lift people out of homelessness.

Despite working together, service providers can’t keep up with demand

At least 703 individuals in the Charlottesville area experienced homelessness of some kind between May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026. That’s up from 620 the previous year and 571 the year before that, according to BRACH’s data. 

That number comes from a list maintained collectively by service providers, called the “By-Name List.” Whenever staff become aware of someone in the community experiencing homelessness, they add that person’s name to the list. Similarly, when someone exits homelessness into housing, staff remove that person’s name from the list. 

During the May 4 presentation, Washington said she checked the list earlier that day, and 335 names were on it. This number, however, is likely an undercount.

More and more people are falling into homelessness in the community for a variety of reasons, Washington said. One is rising rents — and therefore rising evictions. One-bedroom apartments in Charlottesville cost an average of $1,665 according to Zillow and $1,757 per month according to Apartments.com. But the average monthly Social Security or Social Security Disability payment, which is the only income for many unhoused community members, is $1,500, Washington said.

“People aren’t even making enough to just pay rent, much less the other bills and needs that they have in their lives,” she said.

For those who do have income, there’s not enough housing for them.

“We’re seeing limited affordable and low-income housing,” Washington said. That’s why more people are staying in shelters, longer.

More people are reaching out to the service providers for help, said Owen Brennan, executive director of The Haven, a day shelter at 112 W. Market St. in downtown Charlottesville. 

On behalf of BRACH, The Haven runs the Homeless Information Line, a phone-based triage system for anyone experiencing a housing crisis of any kind, be it homelessness or eviction. People who call in to the line are scheduled for an eligibility screening to help direct them to the agency and resource that would be most likely to help them.

The Homeless Information Line received 6,063 calls between April 1, 2025 and March 20, 2026, and staff conducted 713 eligibility screenings in that time period. That’s an increase from 5,000 calls and 600 screenings in the previous year, Brennan said. 

Service providers try to help everyone they can, but they don’t have enough resources to help everyone who needs it. 

For instance, case managers are often crucial to helping unhoused community members find and stay in permanent housing. They might help someone find a job or apply for Social Security or disability insurance, and help that person find a place to live by looking at listings and talking with potential landlords. And once that person is housed, case managers can help them manage their finances. Some even help their guests move in.

PACEM doesn’t require its guests to accept case management services. But if everyone wanted it, the agency wouldn’t be able to provide it.

“Unfortunately, we just don’t currently have the capacity to give everyone a case manager,” Chambers said. Currently, around 30% of PACEM guests work with case managers. That’s more than 70 clients for PACEM’s two full-time and one part-time case managers.

As the number of people experiencing homelessness in the community grows, some trends remain the same while others are shifting. 

PACEM served 246 adults in its overnight low-barrier shelter during November 2025 and April 2026. That’s fewer than the 298 it sheltered in the previous year, but PACEM Deputy Director Cindy Chambers chalked that up to counting differently. In previous years, the organization counted the folks it sent to The Salvation Army’s warm room, but this past year it did not.

Of those 246 people, most of them (77%) were men, as has been in the case in previous years. 

However, 38.6% of those guests were aged 55 or older, a nearly 9% increase over the previous year, Chambers said. That’s one of the factors straining the organization’s resources.

“I can tell you from my team’s work, the needs that folks have when they are older also increase, so this changes what you need out of your team,” she added.

PACEM also served more Black guests than any other race, Chambers said. That hasn’t changed from last year, and it’s indicative of a larger systemic problem.

“If you look at the numbers of our region, about 14% of folks in the Charlottesville metro statistical area report being Black, and yet 42% of the people we serve are Black, which I think just speaks to the housing inequity we are currently facing in our community,” Chambers said.

More than half of PACEM’s guests reported a physical, mental, developmental, chronic and/or substance use disorder condition, and nearly a quarter reported having more than one of those conditions. Mental health conditions were the most common, according to the data PACEM collected. (Chambers now requires Mental Health First Aid training for all PACEM staff.)

Most PACEM guests enter the shelter from homeless or temporary housing situations, and that’s where they go when the shelter season ends, Chambers said. More than half of their guests report having no income at all.

Major Donny Wilson, corps officer leading The Salvation Army shelter on Ridge Street in Charlottesville, said that nearly one-third of the 840 individuals who stayed in the shelter in the past year came out of incarceration. 

“They’re looking for ways to reacclimate and reintegrate into the community, and to do that, they need long-term shelter,” Wilson said. “They’re coming in and finding that, but also finding stability and work.”

On average, The Salvation Army receives 50 calls per day seeking some kind of assistance, and between its shelter, food pantry, hot meals, hygiene closet, utility bill assistance and case management programs, The Salvation Army helped 9,653 individuals over the past year, Wilson said.

The agencies also reported some successes. 

The Haven helped 274 community members through its housing assistance programs, preventing homelessness for 196 and finding stable housing for 78, Brennan reported. 

The Salvation Army helped 103 shelter guests into permanent housing, Wilson said.

On top of that, The Haven, BRACH, and local mutual aid organization the Cville Care Bears provided emergency shelter and food for 109 unhoused community members who would have likely frozen to death during the ice storm that hit the area in late January. 

PACEM’s big win was helping 16 people — only one of whom had a housing subsidy — into permanent housing, Chambers said.

But that’s not where the work ends, Chambers said. 

“What’s been a challenge for us is stabilizing them in that. They are all just one step away from maybe not being able to pay rent,” Chambers said. For that, they rely on other programs throughout the community, including the city-funded Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program, which Chambers encouraged City Council to expand.

“For most of these folks, what they really need is a voucher,” a housing subsidy, she said. “They are spending more than 50% of their income on rent right now.”

Majority of unhoused community members are from the greater Charlottesville area

Over the past few years, City Council has debated which homeless assistance programs to fund, and with how much taxpayer money. They’ve wanted to know: How many unhoused community members are actually from the Charlottesville area?

There’s a common narrative that people are bussed to Charlottesville because it has more resources than other communities, but that’s not necessarily true, said Washington. 

“It’s hard to find someone who’s just going to pay money for you to be shipped somewhere else to experience housing instability,” Washington said. “We certainly don’t do that here.” However, if someone comes into the community from another place, local agencies will see if that person has family or friends they can stay with, safely. And if an agency can confirm that, it will get them a bus or train ticket to wherever they need to go, Washington said.

Most folks who service providers interact with are from this area, they said.

Of the 246 adults PACEM served this past year, 85% reported they were from Virginia, with 62% of guests being from the greater Charlottesville area and 42% from the city. People also reported being from Buckingham County, Lynchburg, Augusta County, Staunton, and Harrisonburg.

Of the 333 unsheltered folks that BRACH counted this past year, 122 of them reported their last permanent address. Nearly half of them, 58, were from Charlottesville. Another 21 were from Albemarle County, 3 each from Fluvanna, Nelson and Louisa Counties; 19 from other localities in Virginia; and 14 out of state.

Providers have maintained for at least the last few years that most of the people experiencing homelessness in the community are from this community. 

Still, a narrative persists that people come from elsewhere to the Charlottesville area to take advantage of its homeless resources, Washington said. 

Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked if there is a geographic limitation for the Homeless Information Line. 

There is not, Brennan said. Anyone can call, but they might not be eligible for local services. Of the 731 eligibility appointments staff conducted last year, 54% were for people from Charlottesville, 28% from Albemarle County, and nearly 6% from Louisa, Nelson and Greene Counties. About 10% of the people were from outside the region, and 2% from an unknown locality.

Councilor Jen Fleisher wanted to know how the “outside the region” number compared with the previous year. 

Brennan couldn’t say. “I didn’t have good numbers for the previous year. We have done a much better job of capturing data this year,” he said.

Council raises questions over plans, collaboration on proposed Holiday Drive shelter

All of the service providers emphasized the importance of collaboration among the agencies, which they feel is stronger than ever before, especially as they work together on a plan for the proposed low-barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive. 

The agencies often help the same clients, but with different things — someone staying at PACEM’s overnight shelter might go to The Haven for a shower and a clinic visit with a UVA School of Medicine student during the day, for instance. A family that calls The Salvation Army for help might get eviction prevention assistance from The Haven.

“I know I’m a broken record here,” Wilson said during his presentation, “but I just want to say how much we appreciate the other agencies, because without their assistance, a lot of these individuals would find themselves back on the street in a crisis situation.”

“We’re collaborating beautifully,” Washington said.

The agencies collaborate not only with one another, but with community groups and local government officials. PACEM relies on churches to provide space, food and volunteers for its seasonal overnight shelter, often at great financial cost to the churches themselves, Chambers said. Churches in the downtown area provide lunch for unhoused community members most days of the week. The UVA School of Medicine hosts a weekly health clinic at The Haven.

But with the numbers — and the amount of money needed to sustain services — going up, City Council member Lloyd Snook questioned the effectiveness of those collaborations, especially in regards to planning for the 2000 Holiday Drive shelter. The City bought the building late last year for $6.2 million. It will take at least $8 million to retrofit the office building into a shelter, and while City Council isn’t planning to cover all of that, it will be contributing some amount toward it that will be determined once a final plan is agreed upon.

“The broad concern that some of us looking in from the outside have had is that it seems as though the different organizations have fundamentally different ways they think they want to approach the problem,” Snook said. He focused on the fact that eight months after City Council greenlit the Holiday Drive shelter project, he hasn’t seen an official plan.

Project partners had submitted a new proposal for Council’s consideration that same day, Washington said. That puts the ball in Council’s court.

“We need to have one approach,” Snook said after learning that there was a new proposal to consider. “If we’re going to put a bunch of money behind it, potentially millions of dollars, we want to know how it’s going to get spent, we want to know that somebody’s in charge, that somebody’s going to be accountable. We want to see a real organization. What I have been led to believe is that at least so far, there has not been that level of coordination and agreement and perhaps little give-and-take.”

Washington disagrees. 

The agencies “are collaborative team players capitalizing on each of our organization’s strengths,” she said in a statement shared with Charlottesville Tomorrow after the meeting. “There aren’t ideological differences in our methodology — we are all rooted in the Housing First model and provide whatever resources we are able to meet the needs of our growing unhoused population.”

“The reality is that we need a funding intervention to expand our scope and clearly define our operational structure for two major projects,” she said, those two projects being the Holiday Drive shelter plan and helping the folks staying in the encampment near Free Bridge, with which the city has asked for help. 

“We are hoping the city can provide guidance and clarity to move this work forward,” Washington said.

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For the last two years, Woodberry Forest School senior Jayden Crosby-Brewer has researched the lives of the enslaved people who lived on and cared for the land prior to the school’s founding, when the site, north of Orange in Madison County, served as the home of William T. Madison, brother of former President James Madison. 

On Saturday, May 16, community members will have an opportunity to celebrate the results of that research. During a commemoration ceremony at 2 p.m., Woodberry Forest School will recognize 53 individuals, enslaved by William Madison, whose labor and legacies are inextricable from the history of the school, and from the larger history of Madison County.

Crosby-Brewer said that his interest in researching this topic was initially sparked by a comment at a Woodberry Forest graduation ceremony.

“I found out there was a plantation through our headmaster, who mentioned at graduation that this land was founded by enslaved people,” he said.

That led him to explore more, from meeting with former Black employees and alumni of the school, to engaging with historians at Montpelier; Right the Record, an initiative that uncovers and documents the history of Black, indigenous and other marginalized people in Virginia; the Orange County African-American Historical Society and more.

Crosby-Brewer said that one particular document provided by Montpelier helped to solidify the vision for his project — to recognize each of the enslaved persons not only for their labor, but as individuals. That document, an 1843 “property inventory” by William Madison, listed the names of 53 people who were enslaved by the Madison family. 

The limited information included in the inventory means that there is still plenty to be discovered — when they lived and died, who they loved and what type of work they did — but there are glimpses. An enslaved woman named Lauretta had a son named Albert. Two of the individuals listed, Simon and Betty, were a married couple. 

Another piece of information that Madison did think to include — their prices — provides additional clues. Henry, who was listed at $25, a price far lower than the healthy adult males on the inventory, was likely elderly and unable to do more than light work, Crosby-Brewer said. Peter, listed at $75, was likely a child.

During Saturday’s event, attendees will have an opportunity to hear each of the 53 names of these individuals, and to see a “sneak peek” of a commemorative bench inscribed with them. 

The ceremony will take place at the new memorial garden just outside of The Residence, Madison’s former home, which was built by the people he enslaved and now serves as a lodging and event site for the school. 

“Woodberry is such a widely known school, and my hope is that we’re able to give those who worked and were enslaved here, and were not recognized, that recognition that they have been essentially deprived of for centuries now,” Crosby-Brewer said. “And I think that this is a step in the right direction for the school to start looking more into their past.”

Dr. Mesha Jones, president of the Madison County African-American Historical Society, agrees. Jones said research projects like Crosby-Brewer’s are critical to building a more complete history of enslaved persons, who were not allowed to keep their own written records, and whose lives were often reduced to the most basic details in the property records of slaveowners. 

“Projects like this help restore something that history has often denied these individuals — their humanity,” she told Charlottesville Tomorrow. “These 53 individuals that Jayden is going to recognize were mothers and fathers and children that provided so much to the Madison community. So, the power in speaking their names and researching their lives, it’s allowing them to remain visible.”

As someone whose own organization works to document and preserve the history of Black communities in Madison County, Jones said she’s encouraged to see Woodberry Forest students and faculty adding to the knowledge base.

“There is a group of educators at Woodberry that I’ve found in the last year or two, who are really pouring into the students and allowing them the space and time to do this research, so I commend them for this,” she said. “The work reflects a willingness to really engage honestly with the past, while helping them continue to grow and ask questions, and also educate those in the community of Madison.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated on May 13, 2026, to correct the RSVP information for the commemoration ceremony.

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The Virginia Department of Health has confirmed a measles case in a child between the age of 5 and 12 in Buckingham County.

The child was exposed to measles locally, and the VDH believes the virus is circulating in the county. It is likely that there are more cases than have been reported, the department said in a May 8 news release. 

“We believe it’s highly likely that they must have been exposed to measles here in Virginia. However, there have not been any cases in the Central region of Virginia within the three weeks leading up to this person’s illness,” said Emily Rich, vaccine-preventable disease epidemiologist at the Virginia Department of Health. “That means that there must have been unreported case or cases we were not able to identify of measles that this person would have been exposed to.”

The fact that VDH didn’t list any places of possible exposure publically means that there were no known places of public exposure, she said. 

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease with nine out of 10 unvaccinated people becoming infected at contact, said Rich. One out of five would need hospitalization. 

The disease spreads through airborne droplets when an infected person sneezes, coughs or breathes, and the virus can survive on surfaces for up to two hours.

It is also preventable through vaccination. In Virginia, 95% of kindergartners are vaccinated against measles, according to the VDH, though vaccination rates are lower in some communities.

“MMR vaccines are safe and effective, and that is the best way to protect yourself against measles. Two doses of MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles, and that projection lasts your entire life,” said Rich.

As of May 7, 2026, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 25 new outbreaks and 1,842 confirmed measles cases across the country. Of those, 92% of cases were among unvaccinated people or people with unknown vaccination status. No measles-related deaths have been reported in 2026. In 2025, three people died of measles — the first such deaths in the United States in a decade.

In Virginia, 22 cases have been confirmed so far this year.

The VDH recommends people living in the Buckingham County area ensure their measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is current and monitor for measles symptoms, which appear in two stages. In the first stage, beginning seven to 14 days after exposure, most people develop a fever greater than 101 degrees, cough, runny nose and red eyes. A rash then appears three to five days later, spreading across the face and body.

Because of the confirmed case of measles, VDH said people who live in or visit Buckingham County should discuss additional vaccine recommendations with their healthcare provider. You can read those recommendations here.

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