DHR Community Outreach seeks to meaningfully engage African American communities throughout the state to enrich Virginia Cultural Resource Information System documentation on historic architecture, archaeological sites, districts, and landscapes especially associated with African American history. The program provides funding for historic resources identification and documentation, paid internships for students enrolled in Virginia-based Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and technical assistance to communities to foster, encourage, and support the stewardship of their historic cultural resources.
DHR’s Community Outreach is part of the Community Services Division and community outreach coordinators work closely with regional archaeologists and architectural historians. The program is structured to facilitate three primary initiatives – augmenting and enriching documentation of African American and indigenous archaeological sites, historic architecture, districts, and landscapes in the Virginia Cultural Resource Information System, administering support for projects identifying and documenting these cultural resources, and administering internships for students to work with the agency.
DHR Community Outreach initiatives are guided by strategic goals to identify and breakdown structural barriers in our preservation practices that impede inclusion and equity, to broaden the historic preservation audience to the breadth of Virginia’s diverse communities, and to increase gainful employment in the preservation field among members of underrepresented demographics. Technical assistance by Community Outreach provides guidance to the interested public on engaging in decision-making through community advocacy for fostering, encouraging, and supporting the stewardship of Virginia’s significant historic architectural, archaeological, and cultural resources.
A historic resources advocacy nonprofit that works closely with decision-makers to communicate the economic and cultural benefits of preservation and promote important preservation-related policies and programs.
Virginia’s state humanities council created by Congress in 1974 with money and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make the humanities available to all Americans.
Encyclopedia Virginia’s mission is to provide a free, reliable, multimedia resource that tells the inclusive story of Virginia for students, teachers, and communities who seek to understand how the past informs the present and the future.
A state agency in the Secretariat of Commerce and Trade with a mission to expand domestic and international in-bound travel and motion picture production to generate revenue and employment in Virginia. Virginia’s Black Heritage Trail is a joint project between Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) and Virginia’s Department of Historical Resources (DHR), combining both historical roadside markers with some of the best local attractions in the commonwealth
A public architectural history project that studies the sites listed in The Green Book to discover their history and support their preservation.
Promoting and protecting the natural resources, rural economy, history and beauty of the Virginia Piedmont. PEC is working with community members in Albemarle County to research and document the history and associated historic resources of African American communities in and around the Southwest Mountains Rural Historic District.
A body politic created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1966 that receives both public and private support to protect a wide variety of open spaces, from farms and forests to parks and historic landscapes in partnership with federal, state, local, and private conservation organizations.
Please see DHR’s webpage on Historic African American sites in Virginia: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/research-identify/african-american/
DHR has a number of programs and resources that can be used to protect historic resources. DHR’s protection efforts involve a range of activities, including providing technical assistance and guidance to property owners and local governments, conducting surveys and assessments to identify threats to historic resources, and developing emergency response plans to address potential threats. To learn more about DHR’s role in protecting resources, please use this link: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/preserve-protect/.
Students enrolled in a historically black college or university (HBCU) are able to participate in the African American Community Outreach Internship program. Please contact Community Outreach Coordinator, LaToya Gray for more information: latoya.gray@dhr.virginia.gov.
Yes! Community outreach internships are paid, part-time wage positions managed by DHR.
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
