First Lady Focus on
the Partnership for Petersburg

EDUCATION

• Provided tutoring & mentoring services to 438 students in the 2022-23 school year by 52 tutors.
• Petersburg City Schools received $3,172,772 M to combat learning loss, chronic absenteeism, and Virginia Literacy Act acceleration.
• Before and after school care has been provided to 189 students in Partnership with the YMCA.
• In June 2023, Richard Bland submitted a launch application to establish an innovative lab school in Petersburg.
• Urban League of Greater Richmond provided a paid tutoring opportunity to HBCU students, allowing over 400 Petersburg City Public Schools students to receive zero-cost tutoring from 20 VSU students throughout the last school year.

HEALTH

• Partnered with Amazon and Goodr to create a mobile grocery store.
• Opened a maternal health hub to support new and expectant mothers.
• Sponsored over 150 pop-up clincis providing a wide range of services.
• The Petersburg Health Department re-opened its Men’s Health clinic ‘Monday Night Checkups’ in September 2022, providing free educational, counseling, testing, and treatment services to 66 adult men.
• The Petersburg Health Department commenced an additional immunization clinic in September 2022, providing free services to over 410 clients since it opened on September 1st.
• DMAS, together with Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) DentaQuest and Conexus, participated in over 236 community health-related events and mobile clinics in the City of Petersburg since August 2022.
• 210 pregnant women received free prenatal and postpartum care through a targeted campaign to promote available maternal health services crafted by DMAS and Managed Care Organizations (MCOs).
• Conexus, performed digital vision screenings of 1,055 Petersburg students, ultimately providing free in-person eye exams and prescription glasses to 440 students through their mobile clinic.
• Nearly $30 million of federal funding was secured to upgrade Poor Creek Wastewater projects, positively impacting 31% of Petersburg residents and opening ~2,000 acres for commercial and industrial site development.
• Petersburg received an additional $2.8 million in funding from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to perform stormwater upgrades and combat flooding in the Lakemont Neighborhood.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• DHCD’s Down Payment Assistant Program assisted six applicants in Petersburg in becoming purchasing home owners since February of 2023.
• VIPC established the Petersburg Founder Fund in 2023 with $500,000 seeding the program and resulting in 25 $25,000 grants to new and existing small business owners in order to support the launch and growth of their local businesses.
• $5 million state investment dedicated to advance pharmaceutical manufacturing and support production of essential medicine ingredients.
• $16 million in state resources funded the creation of 193 new affordable housing units through the Affordable and Special Needs Housing program or private activity bond allocations.
• 75 area residents now have gainful employment resulting from 5 job fairs the Virginia Employment Commission hosted in Petersburg.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Through the Operation Ceasefire Grant Fund, the Attorney General’s Office hired two Special Assistant United States Attorneys and three additional state prosecutors to alleviate pressure on local prosecutors burdened by elevated case loads.
• The Attorney General’s Office hired a Group Violence Intervention (GVI) Coordinator for the Petersburg area to elevate investigation strategies used in gang-related crimes, including procuring a Real Time Crime and Mobile Command Center, and coordinating with other GVI partners across the state to assist with crime trend analytics.
• The Department of Juvenile Justice developed and implemented a process of immediate response for Juveniles committing crimes with guns, more than doubling the percentage of youth receiving related intervention and rehabilitative services.
• Today, Petersburg has an additional 15 sworn officers since the initiation of the Partnership, an increase of 20%. This unprecedented increase in staffing levels was facilitated in part through a partnership with Virginia State University, Petersburg Police Department, Crater Criminal Justice Training Academy, and the Department of Criminal Justice Services which created a community-wide approach to build the sworn officer pipeline. The state distributed $800,000 in ARPA funds allowing the Petersburg Police Department to purchase field-altering equipment and technologies that support the work of sworn officers.
• Violent crime incidents are down in Petersburg by 33% year-to-date. This success was achieved through multiple initiatives, including the deployment of Virginia State Police officers (“VSP Project”) support Petersburg Police Department in combatting violent crime. Despite meaningful progress, the incidence of homicide continues to be the largest violent crime. The Partnership remains committed to continued exploration of solutions to address increasing homicides.

COMMUNITY

• Established a digital hub with tools to help citizens access to local, state, and federal resource for children, education, health, housing, and workforce.
• Created a world-class community resource center with the opening of the VCRC.
• A Petersburg Early Childhood Navigator was hired by the Department of Education and will help faith leaders navigate the regulatory processes of establishing childcare facilities, and provide access to federal and state funding, education, training, and other supports.
• Together the Commonwealth of Virginia, the City of Petersburg, and P4P Partners supported an over $200,000 expansion for the VCRC facility to ensure greater and more efficient service delivery. The VCRC is a centralized space that serves over 100 veteran and civilian clients each week to assist them with identifying education, health, and workforce resources.
• There have been 10 major community events for the Partnership for Petersburg, including 42 people trained in administering Naloxone on Fentanyl Awareness Day.

TRANSPORTATION

• Completed $8M, 75,000-square-foot Park and Ride facility that opened under-budget in Fall 2022 and has grown ridership 10% since opening.
• Secured $450K in federal funds to further operational improvements focused on enhancing accessibility and connectivity.
• Debuted 3rd roundtrip on the DC-Petersburg-Norfolk route; ridership has since grown by over 50% on the route and by 11% YoY at Petersburg Ettrick Station.
• Secured $6.4M in federal funds and $4.3M in state rail funds to fully fund the project; environmental work will be completed next month (Oct. 2023).
• Secured $58M in federal funds to advance the project to the design phase by end of 2023.
• Access improvement studies are on track for completion in March, enabling the City to compete for the next round of SMART SCALE funding in August of 2024.