Local Resources for Community Support
Below, we have provided a list for members of our community who want to contribute whatever resources they have available to put into Richmond and Virginia organizations/branches. We hope this list can help you find a way to connect with and uplift our community!
We try to keep this page fresh, so feel free to reach out via info@candelabooks.com to make suggestions.
LOCAL DONATION + ORG SUPPORT
*CONSIDER: If you have the means when making donations, think about setting up recurring payments to provide more consistent and sustainable funding!
BAIL FUNDS
Richmond Community Bail Fund - The Richmond Community Bail Fund exists to restore the presumption of innocence to defendants so they don't lose their jobs, families and critical services while also reducing the financial burden on our community of detaining citizens prior to their day in court.
ORGANIZATIONS
1708 Gallery - 1708 Gallery's mission is to present exceptional new art. 1708 Gallery is committed to providing opportunities for artistic innovation for emerging and established artists and to expanding the understanding and appreciation of new art for the public.
A Better Day Than Yesterday Initiative Program - The mission of A Better Day is to meet the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of the children of incarcerated parents and individuals released from prison or jail. The goal is to guide and empower parents affected by the system to maximize their potential, strengthen their families, increase their opportunities for successful reintegration into society and to become productive citizens of their communities.
Advocates for Richmond Youth - We are the Advocates for Richmond Youth: a group of youth with lived experience of housing instability & homelessness who have come together to prevent and end youth homelessness in Richmond, VA and beyond. Our group has collected important information from youth and service providers to better understand how the system works and what we can do to get the help we need to move forward in addressing youth homelessness in our community. We use our research to take action to affect change in our community, including providing training for service providers who work with youth!
Art 180 - ART 180 gives young people ages 8-18 living in challenging circumstances the chance to express themselves through art, and to share their stories with others. For 20 years, ART 180 has served Greater Richmond by offering outlets in creative expression for young people and the communities in which they live and go to school. Our programs complement the services provided by our partners, and our work provides a vital service by addressing the need for quality after school programs for youth in our community. Over the years, we have served thousands of young people, celebrated their creative expressions through innumerable showcases and events, and immortalized their ideas and aspirations in murals and other forms of public art that brighten communities across Richmond.
Feed More - Feed More’s programs are dedicated to providing healthy meals and hope for a better tomorrow to Central Virginians who face hunger. With the support of our community, our programs distribute nutritious meals and wholesome food to our neighbors who need it most. With one in eight Central Virginians struggling with hunger, Feed More’s programs aim to help our neighbors when they need a hand up.
Jackson Ward Youth Peace Team - We stand for self-love, self-advocacy, and creativity. We practice, build, and share our self-love through our circle practice, where the youth always lead and through service to our community, such as our Meal Train Mutual Aid. Through encouraging youth to grow into leaderships roles within the Team we empower them with the tools they need to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our creative practice helps us build trust and empathy within our team so that we can continue to grow, heal, and inspire.
Justice and Reformation - Justice and Reformation was created in response to the unjustified shooting of Marcus-David Peters by Richmond Police Department on May 14, 2018 in Richmond VA. Marcus was black, unarmed, completely undressed, and experiencing a mental health crisis. Through community actions and demands, we (local activists, organizers, parents, teachers, and so on) have continued to hold pressure to Richmond Police Chief Durham, Mayor Levar Stoney, Commonwealth Attorney Michael N Herring, and Richmond City Council.
Leaders of the New South - Leaders Of the New South began as a movement to confront southern racism by turning a rallying symbol of REBELlion and oppression into a rallying symbol of REBELlion and liberation and soon evolved into a movement to enable US to be Leaders in our family, Leaders in our community, and Leaders in our nation. By developing and utilizing a network of LEADERS who take ACTION, we drive community empowerment and policy engagement.
Little Hands Virginia - Little Hands Virginia makes sure children from birth to 3 years old have the essentials to thrive from “Day 1.” Working with our network of local agencies, shelters, hospitals and other nonprofits, we identify the needs of families in the cities of Richmond, Hopewell and Petersburg, and counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, Goochland, and New Kent. Our model relies on the donation of new and “nearly new” items through grassroots community drives and donations. We sort and bundle items, and deliver them to parents and children through our network of partners.
Meals on Wheels - Meals on Wheels America is a nonprofit organization with over 5,000 programs across the country, offering older Americans relief by providing meals, overcoming social isolation and removing safety hazards in their homes. Currently, Meals on Wheels is helping 2.4 million Americans annually.
The Mesothelioma Center - Cancer has far-reaching impacts on society, affecting entire communities and individuals alike. In our commitment to addressing these issues, we have developed a comprehensive resource focusing on factors impacting low-income cancer patients. Our guide touches on topics such as cancer and poverty, medical care, financial assistance resources, and more
Neighborhood Resource Center Fulton - Our mission is to build relationships, share resources, and develop skills to enhance lives in Greater Fulton through our Core Programs: Education, Nutrition, Financial Opportunity Center, Community Organizing
New Virginia Majority - We organize within Latinx, African American, Asian American Pacific Islander and youth communities, centering the leadership and demands of working class women of color. Together, we vote, mobilize and engage to end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants and preserve the environment. New Virginia Majority is a leader in the movement for transformative change. Since 2015, we have registered more than 200,000 Virginia voters and knocked on over 1 million doors. Last year, we brought in a more representative legislature, which helped us to finally expand Medicaid to nearly 400,000 people. And 2016, we succeeded in restoring voting rights to thousands of formerly incarcerated people in Virginia.
Oakwood Arts - OA makes art and careers in creative industries accessible to all through community engagement, inspiring programming, and experiential education.
Planned Parenthood - Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit under EIN 13-1644147. Planned Parenthood Has a Hamilton Street and East End clinic locations in our area.
Richmond Food Justice Alliance - The Richmond Food Justice Alliance is a resident lead movement to increase access to healthy food in our neighborhoods.
Richmond Food Not Bombs - Food Not Bombs is an all-volunteer global movement that shares free vegan meals as a protest to war and poverty. Each chapter collects surplus food that would otherwise go to waste from grocery stores, bakeries and markets, as well as donations from local farmers, then prepares community meals which are served for free to anyone who is hungry. Food Not Bombs works to call attention to poverty and homelessness in society by sharing food in public, physically accessible places and facilitating community gatherings of hungry people. Anyone who wants to cook may cook, and anyone who wants to eat may eat. Food Not Bombs strives to include everyone.
Richmond For All - Richmond For All is a progressive political home; our movement is an organizing family of choice. We launched publicly in opposition to the proposal of a TIF district in Richmond’s city center in December, 2018. The developers were corporate giants in the fossil fuel, banking, and tobacco industries. Our coalition was made of public school teachers, public housing advocates, anti-pipeline organizers, and grassroots advocates for change. Today Richmond For All is a member-funded and member-governed organizing community. We don’t live single-issue lives and we don’t pick single-issue fights. Through collectivized resources we have power to choose the fights that represent our lived experiences. We launched our formal membership program in September 2019.
Richmond Mutual Aid - Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Richmond, or MAD RVA, aims to create a support system in response to COVID-19 and the effects it has had on Richmonders, including supply shortage, job losses and quarantine. We operate collectively and are primarily functioning as a supply delivery for folks who cannot access medicine, food and other vital goods. We have also just launched a mini-grants program and are developing other supports, forming partnerships across community and demanding policy shifts in navigating the undetermined timeline of effects on our community. Use this site to request supplies and financial support or to offer your services, donate needed items and dedicate time to community mutual aid.
Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project - The Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project (RRFP) seeks to further Reproductive Justice by providing practical and financial support for abortion services in Virginia and surrounding communities. RRFP strives to be a resource to the community by engaging in grassroots advocacy for the full spectrum of reproductive rights. The Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project supports access to a range of reproductive choices. Clients’ decisions when or whether to become parents are equally supported. RRFP’s mission lends specific focus to assisting people facing financial and institutionalized barriers to abortion services.
Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project - The Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project builds safer, healthier communities by disrupting mass incarceration at its source: police policies and procedures. We organize black and brown people, legal experts, and policy analysts to achieve policing practices that reduce physical, economic, and emotional trauma on the most policed neighborhoods in the city.
Side by Side VA - Side by Side (formerly ROSMY) is dedicated to creating supportive communities where Virginia’s LGBTQ+ youth can define themselves, belong, and flourish.
Six Points Innovation Center - 6 PIC is a place where teens become urban leaders and residents catalyze community transformation. It is an evolving youth-led, youth- driven community center that is a catalyst for justice throughout the city. We equip youth for career success, civic engagement, and creative expression while supporting resident-empowered change.
SNAP - (aka “food stamps) In addition to Social Security and retirement benefits, SNAP(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides monthly benefits to enhance the food budgets of families in need, so they can make healthy, self-sufficient food choices. More than 42 million people are currently enrolled in the SNAP program, according to Feeding America. Of those, 4.8 million are seniors over 60 years old.
Southerners on New Ground - SONG envisions a sustainable South that embodies the best of its freedom traditions and works towards the transformation of our economic, social, spiritual, and political relationships. We envision a multi-issue southern justice movement that unites us across class, age, race, ability, gender, immigration status, and sexuality; a movement in which LGBTQ people – poor and working class, immigrant, people of color, rural – take our rightful place as leaders shaping our region’s legacy and future. We are committed to restoring a way of being that recognizes our collective humanity and dependence on the Earth.
Studio Two Three - We empower artists to make art and make change. It is our fundamental belief that artists create the conditions for a healthy and vibrant society. We feature studio facilities, classes and workshops, artist residency, and open doors. We provide 24/7 access to a printing presses, darkroom, digital lab, communal workplace, and individual studios to support art making for personal and social change. We are professionals, amateurs, teachers and students.
SWOP RVA - Richmond chapter of SWOP USA . Working to end stigma and violence against sex workers in RVA. Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA is a national social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of people involved in the sex trade and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.
The Giving Wall - The Giving Wall is a small website with a big dream: Create compassionate communities in support of collective progress, by telling the true stories of lives lived in poverty, on a platform where urgent needs that obstruct financial progress are posted and purchased. By partnering with nonprofits and city agencies we ensure that needs on The Giving Wall are connected to people who are part of a system of care – where holistic services guide the smart, gutsy men and women brave enough to seek support on their hard-fought journey to a life free from crisis. And by partnering with Supporters, good people who are able and willing to remove the stumbling blocks on that journey, we make certain that system of care is even more successful.
Virginia ACLU - The ACLU has evolved in the years since from this small group of idealists into the nation’s premier defender of the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. With more than 1.5 million members, nearly 300 staff attorneys, thousands of volunteer attorneys, and offices throughout the nation, the ACLU of today continues to fight government abuse and to vigorously defend individual freedoms including speech and religion, a woman’s right to choose, the right to due process, citizens’ rights to privacy and much more.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond - The Visual Arts Center of Richmond (VisArts) has helped adults and children explore their creativity and make art since 1963. Each year, the organization touches the lives of more than 40,000 people through its classes, exhibitions, community outreach programs, camps, workshops and special events.