Core Team Training
VOICE is holding a training series for leaders looking to grow their institution’s core teams or learn how to create a new core team. The main series is for groups of 4 -10 people per institution who are interested or discerning interest in being part of a VOICE Core Team and are willing to commit to the training series as part of that discernment. By the end of the series each participating institution should have a trained Core Team that is already in action or preparing to get into action organizing for justice.
For details please visit this page: voice-va.org/events/coreteamtraining/
In February of each year, VOICE’s Action Team—representing our Member Institutions—selects major initiatives that we will address. Many of these carry over from year to year. In addition, regional strategy teams may identify local initiatives to be pursued as well. For 2023, our major initiatives are Missing Middle Housing and Crisis Receiving Centers.
Crisis Receiving Centers
VOICE is taking aim at the intersection of race, power, and recovery from COVID in Virginia by making sure people suffering from mental illness and addiction get treatment, not jail. A critical missing piece to ending mass incarceration is diverting those with mental illness and addiction to Crisis Receiving Centers (CRCs), facilities staffed by mental health and addiction experts to which law enforcement can take someone struggling with mental illness and/or addiction instead of to jail or the Emergency Room.
Missing Middle Housing
VOICE is asking Arlington County to use all the tools in its power to address the severe housing shortage. VOICE supports the Missing Middle Housing (MMH) proposal. This is a crucial step in undoing the restrictive zoning that led to segregation & racial disparities in housing and wealth building opportunities for the past 90 years. Allowing Missing Middle Housing (duplexes, triplexes, quads, 6, 8-plexes) in the ¾ of the county where it is now illegal will bring more homes to the county—homes in a wider price range supporting a more diverse population.
Get Out The Vote (GOTV)
The most important elections of 2023 are taking place in Virginia, with all 140 seats in the General Assembly on the ballot. VOICE is gearing up for a major, nonpartisan Get Out the Vote (GOTV) effort in Prince William County in one of the districts that may determine control of the legislature, where we will engage residents in historically low-voting precincts. We believe that it’s critical that ALL voices be heard in our democracy, particularly those that are often overlooked.
