RCP hosts periodic Community Forums to promote effective collaborations based upon constructive dialogue principles and best-practices. Our vision is to create a more resilient and thriving Roanoke Valley by leveraging diverse stakeholders to address the complex challenges impacting all of us.

October 5th, 2023 – RCP Forum @ VTC Riverside 4

Thanks to everyone who participated in our October 5 meeting. Our purpose was to develop questions on critical topics that will stimulate collaborative discussion – with those running for office, other community leaders, and ourselves.

During our May meeting, attended by approximately 100 citizens from communities across the Valley, three topics were identified as critical and in need of attention. The questions developed by our breakout groups on October 5 are listed below:

Gun Violence

1. What role do we see Roanoke Parks & Rec having in solving the problem?  Funding needs to be restored to levels before 2020 and eliminate any future funding cuts for the department.
2. How do we teach interpersonal skills to kids and adults?  particularly to eliminate retaliation and replace “screen” time.
3. What happens to the infrastructure of our divided city with no tax dollars addressing the lack of banks and stores? and then find a way to train people to address the diffusion of violence.
4. Who is shooting? How are youth getting guns?  What is the root cause of gun violence?

Affordable Housing

1. What exactly is affordable housing? / What does affordable mean to us and to our community across the spectrum?
2. How can we remove barriers and incentivize more (and a variety of) affordable housing stock options – with public / private partnerships?
3. Is a rent freeze or a ceiling a viable solution?
4. Can we create and fund a program for rehabilitating old / existing housing for affordable housing at scale?

Race Relations

1. Is trust between our race communities increasing or decreasing?
2. What does a racially well-integrated neighborhood look like in Roanoke?
3. Why do you think Roanoke is so persistently segregated?
4. How are the 3 topics of Gun Violence, Affordable Housing, and Race Relations related in Roanoke?
5. How would you create more racial diversity in what is traditionally a ‘white bubble’?
6. What differences in public education quality exist between the racially segregated sectors of the Roanoke Valley?

Now What? At the end of the meeting, participants made a number of good suggestions about how to use these questions. Some participants took responsibility for implementing the suggestions that they made. If you have ideas, please do the same. Ours is an organic, 100% volunteer led movement that does not require you to wait for our lead or approval. Please act!

Suggestions made on October 5 included:

• Asking candidates for office these questions in an effort to stimulate collaborative discussion.
• Create a Facebook page.
• Create a YouTube channel
• Create a Google form for the RCP website to collect comments and questions
• Create a hashtag that works across social media channels, such as #RoanokeCollaboration