Charlottesville, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Price Thomas, executive director of the City of Promise and a host of Envision Radio, recently sat down for an interview on Morning News to discuss the organization’s work and the challenges facing the Charlottesville community. The City of Promise focuses on combating generational poverty through a child-centered, dual-generation approach, addressing education and access as key components. 

“Our main goal is to support the outcomes and the opportunities of our youth here,” Thomas explained. “But one of the most impactful ways to do that is to be more holistic in our thinking, right. It requires parents, it requires community organizations, it requires schools, the municipality. It is an intersectional and multidimensional issue.” 

Thomas emphasized the importance of understanding the various factors that contribute to educational outcomes, noting that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds often face vastly different circumstances outside of the classroom.

He stressed the need for a community-wide effort to address these disparities.
“You have students from Westhaven/10th & Page, from public housing, going into school with kids coming from Rugby Road and we expect them to learn the same. And we sit there and look at the teacher sideways and say why aren’t these kids reading on the same level and why don’t they have the same math score.”
“We have to build competency outside of the building where kids spend much of their time, in the environments and around the people who are really going to be their headwinds or their tailwinds, right? And that’s their parents, that’s their mentors, that’s their community,” he stated.  

The conversation also turned to the difficult topic of violence in the community. Thomas acknowledged the disproportionate impact on young Black men, stating, “The tangible outcomes of gun violence are horrifying.” He emphasized that this issue is complex and requires a multi-faceted approach. “It is not a single solution issue though,” he asserted. “I think we have to look across this diaspora of again, let’s talk about housing. Let’s talk about food, and let’s talk about early childcare. And let’s talk about the circumstances of their parents and their caretakers.” 

Thomas also highlighted the importance of early childhood literacy, noting the concerning statistic that third-grade reading scores are sometimes used to predict future incarceration rates. He stressed that literacy efforts are linked to other critical issues like housing and food security. “The literacy gap in Charlottesville was one of the largest in the state of Virginia, and that’s incomprehensible to me for, again, a wealthy town with a world-renowned university.” 

For more information about the City of Promise and its programs, visit cityofpromise.org, and listen to the full conversation here: