Campaigns
Priority Campaigns
2026 General Assembly
Our team is actively organizing, educating, and advocating throughout the 2026 General Assembly session to advance policies that improve environmental health and quality of life in the Southside. On our General Assembly campaign page, you’ll find the priority bills we’re tracking, opportunities to take action, and tools to help you stay engaged as legislation moves. Together with our community, we’re building momentum for a strong slate of bills that will move Virginia closer to environmental justice.
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Never miss an update about urgent environmental advocacy issues by signing up to receive policy alert emails from Southside ReLeaf.
Homes for All Our Neighbors Coalition
Southside ReLeaf is proud to be a member of the Homes for All Our Neighbors Coalition, a diverse group of community organizations and individuals working together to ensure housing is accessible, affordable, and equitable for everyone in Richmond. We believe housing is a human right, and that our city must expand housing options of all types while addressing past inequities that have pushed longtime residents out of their neighborhoods. The coalition supports thoughtful updates to Richmond’s zoning code — like legalizing duplexes and other housing types across the city, protecting against displacement, and promoting affordability so that all our neighbors can thrive in the places they call home.
Southside ReLeaf is one of over 300 organizations that comprise the Choose Clean Water Coalition. Recently, the coalition sent letters to Senator Mark Warner and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in support of policies that will protect clean water in Virginia and support continued restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The letter to Administrator Zeldin urges the EPA to stop the weakening of water protections in the Chesapeake Bay. The letter to Senator Warner urges a reversal of proposed closures of key Department of the Interior offices that threaten to disrupt water quality monitoring.
Choose Clean Water Coalition
Previous Campaigns
The Fight to Save Hickory Hill
In October 2021, Southside ReLeaf along with partner organizations led a planting of 100 trees at Hickory Hill Community Center, a historically significant community center and local park in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood. Just a year later, the city of Richmond proposed to pave over two acres of green space at the community center to build a burn tower for a fire training facility—bringing fires, smoke and more concrete to a renewed community park in a formerly redlined neighborhood. By summer 2023, the city reversed its decision to pave over the park thanks to activism and advocacy by neighbors and community groups.
Preserving Neighborhood Climate Resilience Grant Funding
In spring 2024, Southside ReLeaf led an action alert encouraging community members to contact Richmond City Council about preserving funding for the Office of Sustainability’s grants program. The city had proposed cutting the program from $250,000 to $150,000, even as community requests for funding exceeded $1.2 million. These grants are a critical piece of advancing RVAgreen 2050, Richmond’s climate equity framework, which prioritizes frontline communities in reducing emissions and building resilience. They support neighborhood-scale solutions like tree planting, community and school gardens, energy efficiency, and green jobs. We emphasized that reducing local climate funding — at the same time federal dollars are shrinking — would undermine progress toward a more resilient, equitable city. Council ultimately voted to reduce the program for FY26, highlighting the urgent need for continued community voices in defending climate and environmental justice funding.