The Collegian
Friday, March 29, 2024

Leadership class to record oral history of Richmond

A University of Richmond leadership studies class will partner with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a nonprofit organization in Richmond's North Side area, to record oral histories recounted by residents.

LISC, a community-development support organization, aims to improve the quality of life in cities by helping residents transform their neighborhoods into good places to live and work, according to its Web site.

Each student in the Leadership in the Contemporary American Metropolis class has been paired with a neighborhood leader chosen by LISC. These neighborhood leaders include ministers, active members of civic organizations and people who have lived in the area for a long time. The neighborhood leaders have each chosen an interviewee — a fellow community member — who they thought would have interesting perspectives about the community.

Together, the students and the neighborhood leaders will conduct a series of interviews this spring. The goal is to identify key issues, people and problems in the community, professor Thad Williamson said.

"We will get a detailed mosaic of the neighborhood," he said.

Once LISC identifies challenges and opportunities in a community, it works to mobilize support in the form of loans, grants and investments, according to its Web site. During the 20 years that LISC has worked in Virginia, it has invested $78.6 million in urban communities.

The interviewers will be asking their neighbors a series of questions designed by LISC to discover the residents' perceptions of the community, how they think the community has changed throughout time and what their hopes are for the future, Williamson said. More than 100 residents will be interviewed, he said.

The role of the students will be to record the interviews and help the interviewees feel comfortable, Williamson said. Each interview will be audio-recorded and the final interview will be videotaped.

After the interviews have been completed, LISC will host a public event featuring the information collected, Williamson said. He said he hoped that the videos and recordings would someday be archived in a public library.

Williamson said the goal of the class project was to study leadership and local powers in urban areas. Students will be able to see the community-development process firsthand and have the chance to form relationships with community leaders in Richmond, he said.

Junior Katie Moyer said she was excited to learn more about Richmond and get to know some of the residents. She said she was especially interested in the history of change in Richmond's communities.

"It is interesting to mark the progression and how neighborhoods evolve over time," she said.

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Junior Michael Rogers said, "I'm excited to research theory and case studies from around the nation and apply my knowledge to conversations with residents [in Richmond]."

The students attended a training session this past weekend with LISC to meet the community leaders they will be working with. The interview process begins for some on Saturday.

Contact staff writer Anna Kuta at anna.kuta@richmond.edu

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