The VCRC currently houses 11 organizations that offer support to residents of Petersburg and surrounding communities. Since opening in April 2023, these organizations have served a combined total of more than 23,000 visitors.
The First Lady partnered with Blandford Academy, Petersburg City Public Schools, Communities in Schools of Petersburg, and the Petersburg Women’s Group to implement the Girls with Pearls program during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. Each school year about 12 Blandford Academy students participated in the program and were paired with mentors and focused on different topics each month. The First Lady will be back at Blandford Academy sometime next month to kick off the 2025-2026 class of Girls with Pearls.
The First Lady launched the Commonwealth-wide It Only Takes One initiative to spread awareness and education on the dangers of fentanyl. The First Lady, alongside the Attorney General, partnered with key state agencies and the City to host an event at the YMCA where she highlighted that while one fake pill laced with fentanyl can take a life, one conversation can save one.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation provided $7.5 million in funding from the Community Flood Preparedness Fund to the City of Petersburg for long-overdue water & wastewater infrastructure upgrades that include
$250,000 for sediment dredging and conveyance restoration study, $650,000 to complete a stormwater structure inventory and model priority areas & planning for improvement projects, $2 million to sediment removal from harbor outfalls allowing 67 acres of downtown to drain, and $4.6 million for the acquisition of hazardous property with underground, channelized floodway for stream daylighting.
Completed $8 million, 75,000-square-foot park and ride facility that opened under-budget in Fall 2022. Since completion, bus ridership has increased over 25% - from 404,000 in FY 2022 to 511,000 in FY 2025.
Secured $450,000 in federal funds to further operational improvements focused on enhancing accessibility and connectivity. Proposed solutions to address non-emergency medical transportation to medical facilities will be presented to Peterburg City Council in September.
Secured $6.4 million in federal funds and $4.3 million in state rail funds to fully fund the station modernization and improvement project, which will rehabilitate the station canopy and platform and improve the parking lot. Final project design will be complete by late 2025, with construction beginning in Summer 2026. Additionally, VPRA—with help from a $1 million Federal Railroad Administration grant—will begin exploring opportunities for additional station enhancements and improvements to support more ridership growth.
Debuted 3rd roundtrip on the DC-Petersburg-Norfolk route in July 2022. Ridership on these routes has since grown by 208%, with over 35,000 boarding or getting off the train on one of these three roundtrips at the Petersburg Ettrick Station in FY 2025. Since the Partnership for Petersburg was announced, ridership on all Amtrak trains at the Petersburg Ettrick Station has increased more than 110%, with almost 60,000 riders boarding or disembarking from a train at the station in FY 2025.
Secured $15.7 million of funding through the SMART SCALE process for the I-95 at Rives Road Exit Roundabouts Project. Secured an additional $45.9 million of funding through the SMART SCALE process for the I-95/I-85 Interchange Improvements Project.
Provided over $39 million in financing to support the development of 332 units of rental housing in Petersburg, with the projects totaling more than $80 million in development costs.
Allocated more than $9.13 million in housing tax credits to create or preserve 898 rental housing units in Petersburg.
Supported 434 Petersburg households through homeownership loan investments totaling over $79.5 million.
Supported the Crater Planning District Commission through a $2 million grant, with $500,000 allocated to support housing priorities in the city of Petersburg.
Assisted nearly 260 households in Petersburg through $3.8 million in mortgage relief through the Virginia Mortgage Relief Program.
Committed $8M in state investments to support the Sycamore Grove mixed-use development that will include a grocery store and workforce housing. Va Department of Housing and Community Development provided a $3.5M Industrial Revitalization Fund commitment for site demolition and infrastructure/utilities, as well as grocery store/retail improvements. Broke ground October 30, 2024.
Awarded $435,500 grant from Va Department of Housing and Community Development to City of Petersburg and Main Street Petersburg to support wayfinding/signage, façade improvement and improvement plan for high visibility gateway/corridor areas. Work to be completed by September 2025.
Using $2.6 million funding provided by Va Department of Housing and Community Development, demolished the Ramada Inn from August through December 2022, removing the blighted structure that had been vacant since 2012.
The state has committed $2.2 million via gap financing through Virginia Tourism Corporation and a loan through Virginia Small Business Financing Authority to support the opening of the hotel for redevelopment of Hotel Petersburg into a 65-room boutique hotel with banquet and dining facilities. Hotel Petersburg opened in December 2024.
The City of Petersburg was awarded $750,000 in the July 2025 IRF announcement to demolish the Travel Inn on East Washington Street. This builds on the state’s commitment to support the city’s efforts to remove blighted properties.
In conjunction with state agencies and federal partners, the City hosts an annual Partnership for Petersburg Job Fair. In January 2025 at the Petersburg Library, more than 520 job seekers attended. The Office of the Attorney General has also hosted two job fairs in Petersburg focused on returning Virginians.
Petersburg High School hosted a Health Training and Education Event for over 300 students and in partnership with close to ten organizations. Students were exposed to hand-only CPR training, Naloxone overdose reversal training, anti-vaping and tobacco cessation materials, and exposed to several career pathways through numerous community organization tables.
Since August 2022, Managed Care Organizations have hosted over 1,000 Petersburg-focused events, with a total contribution of over $5 million.
The Goodr Mobile Grocery store served 600+ households in partnership with Bon Secours between 2024 and 2025 with over 20,000 meals and 24,000lbs of food being supplied. Total meals provided through activations sponsored by Amazon, Anthem, Comcast bring the number closer to 50,000 meals.
During the 2024-2025 school year over 1,200 students received vision screenings by Conexus. 561 students (47%) were identified to have vision issue and 431 students received eyeglasses. 72% Medicaid enrolled students were served.
As of June 2025, the Men’s Sexual Health Clinic received 112 visitors, and the Immunization Clinic received 578 visitors.
There are 35 State-Certified, Medicaid approved Doulas covering the Petersburg/Hopewell area, 5 of which directly reside in Petersburg or Hopewell. There have been a total of 47 Doula-Assisted Births in Petersburg, VA.
In November 2023, DMAS collaborated with Dr. Daphne Bazile of Bon Secours Southside to extend the OB/GYN Saturday clinic days. There have been five successful clinics with another planned for early fall and over 80 members have been served. Since the inception of the project, postpartum visit rates increased 16%, however, the creation of a maternal and postpartum dashboard for monitoring visit rates has shown even more success with an average postpartum visit rate of 57.7% including a rate of 64% in June 2024, which is 52% increase on the baseline rate.
$62 million in total funding has been secured from federal, state, and local sources, including $3.4 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. An estimated over 1,700 new jobs and 7,000 construction jobs are tied to the water and wastewater projects. These improvements will provide improved reliable service to current customers including Bon Secours Southside Medical Center and the Pharmaceutical Cluster (Novo Nordisk, Phlow, CivicaRx). The projects also support future development in the Poor Creek area.
The City of Petersburg was awarded $540,000 from the Opioid Abatement Authority, which will include $100,000 for PSAs and training materials.
In 2024, Petersburg recorded 17 fatal fentanyl overdoses, marking a 50% reduction from the 34 deaths reported in 2023 and a 53% decline compared to the peak of 36 fatalities in 2021.The city has also seen overall drug overdose deaths drop by 39.5% since 2023 and 45% since 2021, along with a 30% reduction in overdose deaths linked to cocaine since 2023. The number of fatal ODs for persons 0-17 years of age for Petersburg was 0 for both 2023 and 2024.
The Life Enrichment Center (LEC), founded in 2003 by Pastor Kevin Turpin, provides one-on-one, in-person literacy mentoring and tutoring to elementary students reading below the third-grade level in select Virginia schools. Tutors commit one hour weekly, working in structured cohorts overseen by a coordinator. 90% of students enrolled in the LEC showed reading improvement. LEC has also built 15 Literacy and Technology Centers in Title I schools across Virginia, serving over 7,000 students. In the fall of 2023, Governor Youngkin and First Lady Youngkin donated their salary to LEC, this donation totaled to $43,750.
EduTutorVA founded in 2020, offers virtual math and reading tutoring to students in high-need Virginia schools three times a week. Kris Amundson, who serves as Co-director and a board member, has worked with team SOE to discuss future opportunities in Petersburg. Senator Mark Warner is the Honorary Chairman of the board. The program utilizes 500 trained college tutors from 14 institutions. EduTutorVA has served over 1,400 students and demonstrated strong results – at the Richmond partner school, EduTutorVA increased SOL pass rates from zero to 94% in one year and raised reading proficiency at William Ramsay Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, from 28% to 70%.
Communities In Schools of Petersburg (CISP) provides integrated student support services to 90% of Petersburg City Public School students through 10 site coordinators. In the past year, they served over 4,000 students and 925 families, with 84% of students improving academically, 85% behaviorally, and 76% in attendance. CISP also coordinated food and basic needs assistance for thousands of families through partnerships and volunteers.
In FY 25, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services awarded over $3.9 million in grants to the City of Petersburg. This included over $2.6 million in 599 Funds and over $560,000 for Community Corrections and Pretrial Services.
Office of the Attorney General (OAG) provided $400,000 to Petersburg for a mobile command unit, a drug K-9 named Elvis, Flock Cameras, and a Police One app to improve transparency and Public Safety.
OAG paid for the National Network of Safe Communities to work with their Ceasefire Coordinator to implement gang violence intervention, including Ceasefire Petersburg technical assistance, in the city.
In February 2025 a full time Assistant Commonwealth Attorney was appointed to prosecute violent crimes. Since then, they have prosecuted five cases all of which have been found guilty.
OAG funded Ballistic IQ for Petersburg. BIQ is gun crime intelligence software that offers law enforcement a mobile, ballistics triage tool to quickly identify, catalog, and establish leads based on firearm evidence at a crime scene. Once submitted, Ballistics IQ produces a Crime Scene Analysis (CSA) Triage report that provides law enforcement with a breakdown of an analysis of a fired cartridge case. Petersburg has scanned 287 Fired Cartridge Cases (FCCs) and have submitted 20 CSA reports.
And much more!