Madison House’s Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope (CASH) program works to train and coordinate student-volunteers to provide free tax preparation for low- and moderate-income community members…This year marks 15 years since the launch of the C’ville Tax Aid Coalition — a partnership including Madison House and the University of Virginia Community Credit Union that is coordinated by the United Way of Greater Charlottesville. Since its inception in 2007, the Coalition has generated over $35 million in direct economic impact for the Charlottesville area community.
As a first year at the University of Virginia (UVA), Chelsea Li (CLAS ‘20) wanted to soak up all the opportunities that the University had to offer. She found herself exploring new clubs and classes and was especially eager to be in the community. “In high school,” she said, “I felt as if I was missing a lot of the learning that happens outside the classroom.” This desire to stretch her curiosity across disciplines and interests, along with an intrinsic desire to uplift those around her, was what first brought Chelsea to Madison House.
The House has long been a place where students can come to find or rediscover themselves and their place within the community. This held true for Paige, who shared that “it gives me peace of mind knowing that I am a good swimmer but that's not what defines me. There's so much more to life, like helping others. My time at Madison House has allowed me to see that.”
Kruse, from Ridgeland, Mississippi, is a fourth-year student in the McIntire School of Commerce. She initially got involved in the program because of her prior experience in advocacy work.
“Ultimately, the goal of the program is for students to learn about environmental science through a native lens,” Kruse said. “Maelee Hearington, another UVA student, and I wrote the curriculum to focus on science, social activism and social justice. We also provide additional resources like workbooks, markers, easels and notebooks.”
On March 11, 2020, all Madison House in-person volunteering was suspended in an effort to slow the emergence of COVID-19. Shortly after, a Spring Action Team headed by Madison House student volunteers Simmy Bhatia, Caroline Hallowell, and Mikaela Rirchardson worked in coordination with Dr. Rose Cole, the Madison House Director of Community Engagement, to begin developing a virtual volunteering initiative called "Hoos Helping."
Graeff, a fourth-year art history major and a recipient of a University of Virginia Arts Award, has taken up the cause of a trio of female artists from the 1980s who she argues have been overlooked.
Aside from her studies, Graeff is a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority’s Beta Sigma chapter. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she was involved with a Madison House arts organization at Venable Elementary School.
At the University of Virginia, we pride ourselves on being an elite university that prepares its students to serve the public. Madison House, hundreds of CIOs, and various NGOs in and around the University are full of students looking to serve, and there is a lot of good service, too. However, there is a component to public service that is necessary but often forgotten: humility. And I mean genuine humility, not just the sort we hear all too often as a preamble to accepting recognition ("I am humbled to….").
Launched as part of a new partnership between Batten and Madison House, an independent volunteer center for students at the University of Virginia, the drive complements Holiday Sharing, a program that numbers among Madison House’s oldest and has long provided Charlottesville families with food and personalized gifts for the holidays. Due to the pandemic, a community partner that had been assisting with food for the families was unable to do so this year, so the Batten community stepped in to fully fund and shop for food for all 120 families participating in the Holiday Sharing program.
