Route One (Lorton to Woodbridge)
Description
Just south of Washington, DC, running through the middle of the nation’s wealthiest municipalities, is a corridor comprised of communities in which there can be found significant economic distress and poverty. It is estimated that one in every eight children living in Fairfax County lives in poverty, and most of them along Route 1. For the past six months, the Phoenix Project has been laying the groundwork for a partnership between several universities, anchored by George Mason University, and community leaders in these neighborhoods based on a proven model developed in Petersburg. Because the Route 1 corridor stretches for almost thirty miles, the effort has begun in two communities—Lorton and Woodbridge—located near the center of the corridor, and within eight miles of the Fairfax campus of George Mason University. The first phase of the partnership involves surveying community leaders for their perspectives on the causes of distress in their neighborhoods and their best ideas for solutions. This survey is nearly complete and will guide the partnership’s substantive focus.
Partners
George Mason University anchors the partnership with the communities of Lorton and Woodbridge along the Route 1 corridor in Northern Virginia, and we now are working with the leadership of Northern Virginia Community College.
Results
The Route 1 Partnership is currently in development. Our timeline is as follows:
Phase One (August 2007 – February 2008)
- Conduct community and university interviews and surveys
- Create list of possible matches and projects
Phase Two (February – June 2008)
- Identify pilot projects and participants
- Measure success and modify methodology as appropriate
- Engage stakeholders from community and university on advisory councils
Phase Three (June – December 2008)
- Scale up number of participants and number and complexity of projects
- Engage additional universities in consortium
- Publicize successes of the partnership and build public recognition of the communities’ needs and the universities’ commitments
- Engage students and faculty more deeply in the Phoenix Project’s social entrepreneurship education programs
- Build sustainable elements of the partnership that can exist independently of the Phoenix Project