Our first Bike Walk RVA Academy graduates!
Three months ago, we and 20 eager City of Richmond residents dispersed among 7 council districts embarked on Richmond’s first Bike Walk RVA Academy, an 8-week course to train them to advocate for spaces dedicated to safety, comfort, and accessibility for bike riders and pedestrians. We are so proud to announce they graduated this week!
The workshops covered material such as campaign planning, a primer on bike/ped design, values and storytelling, media and communications, and leadership. We were fortunate to be able to have a host of wonderful guest speakers ranging from Richmond City Council President Charles Samuels to Richmond Times Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams, and our participants worked through a number of individual and team-building exercises to hone their skills, get to know one another, and plan their next actions.
Expect to see our Bike Walk RVA Champions be active in their neighborhood associations, at city council meetings, and out on the street identifying projects needed in their communities. Bike Walk RVA plans to host at least two more courses in 2015, so stay tuned for the next round!
PS – A special shout-out is in order for academy graduate Shawn Winter for receiving the Bike Walk RVA Volunteer of the Year award at Sports Backers’ Annual Holiday Volunteer Celebration last night! He was gifted a golden paintbrush for his dedicated work at our North Church Hill Better Block project, but he also was instrumental in organized this year’s Bike to Work Day rest stops and is always there to pitch in. Thanks a lot, Shawn!