Summer 2016, DRF interns explored and identified the unrealized, and often overlooked, resources in the smaller neighborhoods around the Dan River Region by engaging in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). ABCD is an approach to community improvement which focuses on the identification of a neighborhood’s strengths, rather than its needs. Interns were assigned to teams that worked within local neighborhoods to identify the skills, personalities, associations, institutions, structures and relationships that make up that particular community. This information will help DRF and residents gain insight into the resources available, and those still needed, to help the neighborhood thrive. DRF believes that interns working at this grassroots level can contribute to our efforts to make significant changes in that community’s civic capacity. Therefore they are contributing towards the work of DRF’s larger, overall goal of a more vibrant and revitalized Dan River Region.

1. Old West End
W. Judge Browning I Lynchburg College

2. Character
� Danville’s oldest
neighborhood
� Danville Historic District
� Sense of Identity
� Active Participation

4. Assets and Opportunities
� Beautiful and historic
� Passionate, engaged people
� Build on recent efforts
� Networking and marketing
820 Pine

5. Challenges
� Some projects seem strenuous
� Vacancy
� Creating unified vision
� Quality housing for different incomes
820 Pine

6. Inspiration
� Charleston SC – Cultural Tourism
� College Hill Neighborhood Plan

7. Recommendation
� Meet and strategize
� Compile neighborhood history
� Synthesize Plan
� Resident driven neighborhood plan