Our Leadership Impact

Community Foundation Initiatives in Northern Virginia

Our Leadership Impact
The Community Foundation launches leadership initiatives to advance equity throughout the region. Through cross-sector partnerships, strategic investments and thoughtful events, these initiatives help the community act upon some of the biggest challenges the region faces.

See how the Community Foundation has used its blueprint for community leadership as a model to help build a community that works for everyone through each of the recent initiatives below.

The Afghan Relief and Resettlement Fund for Northern Virginia

The Afghan Relief and Resettlement Fund for Northern Virginia

The Community Foundation’s Afghan Relief and Resettlement Fund for Northern Virginia was established on September 1, 2021 to support Afghans fleeing their country who either passed through or were resettled here in Northern Virginia.

Grants from the Fund first focused on their immediate unmet human and basic needs, such as food, shelter, acute health, acute mental health services. Subsequent grants supported longer term resettlement efforts, including legal, mental health, physical health, housing, transportation, education, language, and other coping skills.

Count the Region

Count the Region
Between January 2019 and October 2020, the Community Foundation engaged in Count the Region, a community leadership endeavor to get out the count for the 2020 Decennial Census. It was a cross-sector coalition building and awareness campaign to ensure that federal funding would be appropriately allocated to support the region’s infrastructure for the next ten years.
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Build Back – Dream Forward

Build Back – Dream Forward
Build Back Dream Forward was an event and community investment initiative established in 2021 to achieve economic mobility, promote racial justice and equity, and catalyze more inclusive systems of economic growth in Northern Virginia, particularly in local communities of color who were disproportionately impacted by the virus and its fallouts.
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Community Wealth Building

Community Wealth Building
In 2017, the Community Foundation introduced a Community Wealth Building initiative to encourage a systemic approach to more inclusive economic development throughout the region. This long-term community leadership initiative launched a Northern Virginia Anchor Collaborative that continues to work together on ways businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local governments can encourage a more equitable and inclusive prosperity for all Northern Virginia residents.
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