The SOVA Innovation Hub is proud to launch the 2021 Southern Virginia Community Challenge with ChangeX and Microsoft. This year’s challenge was announced on January 27, 2021 by Jeremy Satterfield, Microsoft TechSpark Virginia Program Manager, and Niamh McKenna, ChangeX Co-founder.
ChangeX is a global non-profit that helps connect ideas, people, and funding to bring about positive community change.
Supported by Microsoft, ChangeX is currently in its second year of hosting the Southern Virginia Community Challenge. In the first year (2020), several community members applied for and received funding to complete a community project. Some of the project winners included a teacher who started a Bee Friendly Pollinator plot on her farm, a retired social worker who started a Community Kitchen to help bring healthy food to hungry people in northern Halifax County, and the South Boston Farmer’s Market manager who launched a campaign called Grow It Yourself to teach kids about growing their own food.
Bee Friendly Pollinator
Community Fridge
Grow It Yourself
Apply for a 2021 ChangeX Community Projects
The 2021 ChangeX community projects include everything from starting an open orchard or a community composting site, to installing an interactive ThinkScape in a public space to support child development, to hosting an Hour of Code or launching a Community Fridge or a FIRST Robotics Lego League. Individuals or organizations can apply for grant funding to launch one of 15 projects. Check out the project list at https://sovainnovationhub.com/changex to see if any of these would be a good fit for your community or organization.
ChangeX funding is open to people and organizations in Halifax, Mecklenburg, Charlotte, Lunenburg and Brunswick Counties only. Eligibility and other guidelines are here: https://www.changex.org/funds/southern-virginia-community-challenge