Virginia Organizing Project celebrates anniversary

By the time Brian Johns arrived in Washington County three years ago, the Virginia Organizing Project’s local chapter had already brought Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to the area and convinced Emory & Henry College to pay a living wage.

Johns then found himself working on two new priorities – smart development and open government – that put him in the midst of organizing efforts to convince the Washington County Board of Supervisors to bring back its public comment period and stop the construction of a Love’s Truck Stop near an elementary school in Meadowview.

“Right now we’re working on budget issues,” Johns, the local chapter’s organizer, said as he talked about the group’s current initiative during a Saturday afternoon interview.

Based in Charlottesville, the Virginia Organizing Project celebrated its 15th Anniversary Saturday with an event attended by about 200 supporters and activists in Richmond, where they unveiled the group’s new name – Virginia Organizing – and logo.

Spokeswoman Julie Blust said the group dropped the word “Project” from its name because it sounded temporary. The group’s new logo is blue and green, and features an outline of the state with a person standing inside, she said.

No matter how the project’s activities vary from year to year or how it changes its name or logo, one thing is certain – the group’s roots trace back to Southwest Virginia.

“We’ve been in Washington County since our founding,” Johns said, adding that while the project’s Washington County chapter didn’t officially form until a few years ago, the area has always been a priority for the group’s organizers.

In August 1995, a group of 10 people realized that none of the state’s citizen advocacy organizations were very active in Southwest Virginia and formed the project’s first chapter in Lee County. They formed a chapter in Wythe County a few years later.

Now with 30 employees and 46 groups, the project specializes in such issues as tax reform, health care, voter registration, diversity and sexual orientation issues.

Over the years, it’s been involved in restoring voting rights to about 300,000 state residents with felony convictions, assisting in living-wage campaigns, asking the state government to save health-care jobs, and promoting a minimum-wage increase.

This year, as Johns said, the group is focused on the state’s budget – especially when it comes to finding a way to increase state revenues during a tight economy so that key services such as education won’t face significant cuts.

During the budget process this year, the project’s members raised $920 at 10 bake sales across Virginia. The group gave the money to Gov. Bob McDonnell as a way to help fill in a $4 billion state budget deficit.

“The bake sale was a great statement,” said Richmond resident Jodi Mincemoyer, a social worker who has been active with the group since 2004. “It wasn’t about the money we raised, it was about doing something to fill the gap.”

Johns said the group also is working on a new blueprint for the state’s tax code that looks at everything from the corporate tax structure to the brackets used to determine how much income tax a person should pay.

The long-term goal of the blueprint, he said, is to find a way the state can raise more revenues without forcing most of its residents to pay more in taxes than they already do.

He also said this initiative is designed to get people – from Washington County and other parts of the state – to start thinking seriously about where the state’s money comes from and how it is spent.

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518

Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Luz Lazo contributed to this report