A1 Minute! April 23, 2026: Southside ReLeaf free tree giveaway

April 23, 2026, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond group giving away 200 trees to help ‘Cool the City’

April 22, 2026, CBS 6 WTVR

RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond nonprofit is working to cool Southside and East End neighborhoods one tree at a time.

Amy Wentz co-founded Southside ReLeaf to help Richmond residents in the hottest neighborhoods add more shade and cool their homes with trees, which is considered nature’s best air conditioner.

“Getting off work, you're walking to the closest bus stop and if you don't have the shade that trees bring, that could be very devastating,” Wentz said.

Hear Together: Go With the Flow

April 19, 2026, WNRN Hear Together

Southside ReLeaf is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the Southside Richmond community by addressing environmental injustices and advocating for equitable green spaces.

Flooding affects neighborhoods across the city — but better data is needed to understand where solutions are most urgently needed. Southside ReLeaf and the University of Richmond welcomes you to join Go with the Flow, a community science project mapping flooding across Richmond. After it rains, participants can report flooding — or no flooding — in their neighborhood using their online survey.

You can visit southsidereleaf.org/flow, or text FLOWRIDERS to 866-719-9501 for reminders, as they aim to build a safer, more resilient Richmond.

Richmond advocacy groups poll residents on key housing issues as city drafts ‘Code Refresh’

April 16, 2026, WRIC ABC 8News

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A new poll shows Richmonders are feeling the housing squeeze as the city continues drafting its plans for “Code Refresh.”

On Thursday, April 16, local housing advocacy coalition “Homes for All Our Neighborhoods,” hosted a press conference on how residents feel regarding key housing issues.

The coalition conducted the poll by surveying 621 Richmonders from Mar. 20 through Mar. 29 using targeted advertisements and text messages. Several groups based on race, age, renters and owners were surveyed.

“Folks throughout the city want to welcome people into their own neighborhoods and want to ensure that there’s opportunities for new housing throughout that,” said Executive director Tom Fitzpatrick.

For some Richmonders, code refresh is a promise for a better future

April 16, 2026, The Richmonder

Late last year, a member of Richmond’s Zoning Advisory Council challenged planners on a proposal to allow duplexes in all residential neighborhoods, even those with the largest, most spread-out properties.  

“I’ve talked to a lot of people that live in those neighborhoods, and have also heard from a lot of neighborhood associations,” said Charles Menges. “I never heard anybody that agreed this is a good idea.” 

As Richmond continues to overhaul its 1970s-era zoning code, officials have encountered sharp resistance to plans to allow greater density throughout the city, particularly from neighborhood associations and a group organized by former City Councilor Marty Jewell.

But while those criticisms have been loud, not all Richmonders agree that the rezoning effort known as the code refresh is a bad thing. For them, the potential concerns are outweighed by the opportunities that they believe it would unlock: More affordable homes. More shops and services within walking distance. Neighborhoods with a wider range of housing types and residents.

Cool the City: Expanding Richmond’s Tree Canopy to Reduce Heat Disparities

April 15, 2026, CBS 6 Virginia This Morning

RICHMOND, Va. -- Some Richmond neighborhoods experience temperatures up to 16 degrees hotter than others due to a lack of shade trees — a disparity the Cool the City campaign is working to change.

Led by Southside Releaf and supported by Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, Groundwork RVA, and the City of Richmond’s Office of Sustainability, Parks and Recreation, and DPW, the initiative focuses on reducing extreme heat, improving community health, and lowering energy costs through strategic tree planting.

For more information, future planting events, and ways to get involved, visit coolthecity.com.

8News talks with Southside ReLeaf about ‘Cool the City’ campaign

April 13, 2026, WRIC ABC 8News

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — 8News got a visit from a special guest with Southside ReLeaf on Monday to talk about their Cool the City campaign.

8News anchors Autumn Childress and Madison Moore were joined by Amy Wentz, a co-founder of the program, to talk about its mission.

“As we’re talking about record-breaking temperatures, Cool the City is an effort to increase the tree canopy here in Richmond,” Wentz said. “It’s made up of four nonprofit organizations in partnership with the city, and so we’re going to be planting a lot of trees and doing a lot of great stuff to make it cooler.”

For more information and to find upcoming volunteer events, visit the Cool the City website.

Trees take root as Virginia’s frontline defense against urban heat

April 6, 2026, Virginia Mercury

As temperatures climb, some parts of the commonwealth are heating up faster than others — a result of too few trees and too little shade. Neighborhoods without tree canopy can be up to 15 degrees hotter than those with tree cover, and often those areas are home to communities of color and lower income households. 

To address the legacy of redlining and underinvestment in these parts of Virginia localities, state and local groups are working to lower temperatures naturally by planting trees.

Across Richmond, hundreds of tree wells sit empty. Through a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the city and community-based groups are working to plant more trees and bring shade to neighborhoods that need it most.

“The neighborhood organizations and these nonprofits are kind of stepping in to assist the city in this effort because we do realize that there are a lot of needs and priorities that the city has to take care of,” said Amy Wentz, co-founder of Southside ReLeaf. 

The Cool the City initiative was created as part of Richmond’s RVAgreen plan to increase tree coverage across the city. Local officials also hired an urban forester for the first time to develop a comprehensive plan identifying where more green space is needed most.  

Canopies and communities: Solutions to combat urban heat island effects

February 26, 2026, Planet Forward

Richmond, Virginia, is home to the Hickory Hill Community Center. This center served as the only African American school during segregation and has been repurposed as a community center. Hickory Hill was pivotal in advancing racial justice in Richmond. To honor the center’s legacy of promoting equity and opportunity, Southside ReLeaf decided to launch a community climate justice initiative at the site.

Southside ReLeaf is a Richmond-based organization that fights for health, justice, and equity in Richmond’s Southside region through creating green spaces. The Southside is a historically redlined neighborhood and a present day urban heat island. By creating green spaces in the Southside, residents have access to shade and cooling air to combat urban heat island effects. 

Southside ReLeaf engaged community members to plant 100 trees and create tree canopy at the Hickory Hill Community Center. While creating tree canopy helped to reduce extreme heat in the area, the project was successful for an additional reason: its focus on community-engagement. Planetary solutions thrive when community members are part of the decision-making processes that affect them and that they are expected to maintain and uphold. 

We need homes with roots, not just roofs

December 24, 2025, Richmond Free Pree

Too often, conversations about solutions pit housing against the environment, as if building affordable homes means cutting down the trees that make our neighborhoods livable. That’s a false choice. Virginia can and must do both: grow an affordable housing market while protecting the natural infrastructure that keeps communities healthy and resilient. 

We need homes with roots, not just roofs

December 16, 2025, Virginia Mercury

If we choose growth that keeps people and trees rooted in the same soil, we can ensure every community has both the homes and the canopy it needs to thrive, write guest columnists Sheri Shannon and Kami Blatt of Southside ReLeaf.

Affordable housing and other nonprofits launch campaign in support of zoning code changes

November 10, 2025, The Richmonder

A coalition including many of Richmond’s most active affordable housing developers has launched a campaign in support of the city’s ongoing effort to overhaul its 1970s-era zoning code. 

Backers of the “Homes for All Our Neighbors” campaign include nonprofits project:HOMES, Richmond Metro Habitat for Humanity, the Better Housing Coalition and Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, all of whom are involved in constructing affordable units, as well as other nonprofits like Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), the Partnership for Housing Affordability, Southside ReLeaf and RVA YIMBY. 

Growing a Healthier Future in Richmond’s Southside

November 4, 2025, The Phil

In 2019, Sheri Shannon and Amy Wentz heard a shocking statistic: Those who live in the Southside area of Richmond, Virginia, have up to a 20-year life expectancy gap compared to those who live in other parts of the city. This could be attributed to systemic racism, a higher concentration of poverty, exposure to environmental hazards, limited healthy food options and inadequate access to quality health care.

Shannon and Wentz were inspired to make a difference in their community and teamed up to create Southside ReLeaf, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental justice and equitable access to green spaces. It works to improve the quality of life for residents of Southside Richmond by using community-driven strategies to address and combat environmental injustices.

“The work that we do is all about making Southside Richmond greener, healthier and more connected,” said Sarah Wilkinson, communications manager for Southside ReLeaf.

City planners want more feedback on rezoning maps from Southside residents

September 16, 2025, The Richmonder

While members of the Planning Department have been attending neighborhood association meetings to discuss the code refresh over the past few months — city spokesperson Michael Hinkle said officials have been to nearly 30 such meetings to date — Southside has fewer established neighborhood groups, meaning other outreach strategies are necessary. 

Asked about the city’s approach, Hinkle said the Planning Department has used community ambassadors and worked with Southside City Council members and community organizations like Virginia Community Voice and Southside Releaf to hold feedback sessions “in an effort to meet these communities where they are.” 

‘Invaluable service’: the role of community science in the Chesapeake Bay region

July 8, 2025, Bay Journal

Kovaka said formal scientific studies can leave out community concerns or paint broad strokes that don’t reflect what’s happening on the ground. For example, Richmond has data on where the city floods. But Sheri Shannon, co-founder of Southside ReLeaf, said it doesn’t fully reach the neighborhood level. The nonprofit focuses on cooling the city with tree canopy, but a lack of trees to capture rain can also increase flooding.

“It’s not a coincidence that the neighborhoods that have more impervious surfaces and less canopy cover and green spaces are also the ones where we’re seeing hotter temperatures, and also that flooding,” Shannon said.

So, Southside ReLeaf launched a program called Go with the Flow, which allows residents to sign up to submit photos of flooding in their area when it rains. The nonprofit is partnering with the University of Richmond to map the data and plans to present its findings to the city’s public utilities department.

Where the Water Goes

June 30, 2025, Richmond Magazine

An environmental justice nonprofit and the University of Richmond have partnered to fix flooding across the city. Go With the Flow, a community flood mapping project that began March 20 and concludes Sept. 1, invites locals to complete a survey each time it rains.

The online survey asks participants if their area has flooding, standing water or neither and allows users to upload a photo of their surroundings. By capturing location data and images of flooding in neighborhoods across Richmond, the nonprofit organization Southside ReLeaf hopes to help the city identify where improvements in flood infrastructure are needed.

“Our systems just weren’t built for what we’re seeing right now,” says Sheri Shannon, co-founder and director of programs at Southside ReLeaf. “So, we’re hoping that this data will help city leaders ... really make the case for why we need to prioritize flood mitigation in the city, especially in areas like South Side, [which is] already dealing with extreme heat and other social inequities because of how the neighborhoods are designed.”

Working to fix problem flooding in Richmond

June 2, 2025, WWBT

Summer’s heat means summer thunderstorms, which often bring flooding. It often happens in the same areas over and over.

“It’s really a soggy experience for folks, whether you’re, like, trying to get to work or driving, you’re walking. If you’re waiting for the bus, is this really, really bad,” Sheri Shannon with Southside Releaf said of living in an area that holds water after storms

She decided to help areas on the southside of Richmond by starting the organization that works to reduce heat and flooding, which happens here much more than in the city’s higher-income areas.

How you can help a Richmond nonprofit document flooding during storms

May 14, 2025, WTVR

As Central Virginia continues to see rain in the forecast, a nonprofit in the city is asking residents to document where they may see standing water or flooding from stormwater.

In March, Southside ReLeaf and the University of Richmond launched a campaign called "Go with the Flow," an online flood mapping program that tracks the city's most flood-prone areas and creates a computer model of flooding in the city. Data is collected through an online survey that documents the flooding location and whether there is any standing water during and after rainfall.

What are heat islands?

May 13, 2025, Southern Environmental Law Center

As our climate continues to warm, more and more evidence reinforces the importance of trees and their shade in ensuring everyone can weather the hotter summer days and nights ahead.

Across the South, we see communities suffering from dangerously hot summer days. This is the combined result of extreme heat worsened by climate change and the urban heat island effect, where the materials like concrete and asphalt used in parking lots, buildings, and roads hold and give off heat more than natural ground cover like bodies of water, trees, and other plants. This means, on the same day, a city center will often be notably warmer than nearby suburban or rural areas.

One place this is playing out is the Southside of Richmond, a historically Black area named for its place relative to the James River.

‘A cooler, greener and more resilient Richmond’: City launches project to combat heat, expand green spaces

April 22, 2025, WRIC

Earth Day was celebrated around the world on Monday, and Richmond marked the occasion with the launch of a 5-year environmental initiative aimed at cooling down some of its hottest neighborhoods.

It’s called “Cool the City” and it is a 5-year plan to plant over a thousand trees across Richmond and invest in environmental workforce development.