Eastern Shore Livability Workshop on August 20, 2025 from 3:00pm to 6:30pm, at the Northampton YMCA!
Thanks to the insights gathered through workshops, interviews, and focus groups with Eastern Shore community, we’ve reached an exciting turning point! We now have meaningful data—shaped by local voices—showing where the burdens of environmental changes, such as flooding and failing septic systems, are most deeply felt and how these changes are affecting livability on the Shore.
Now, we need your help once more to bring this data to life!
At this workshop, we will share what we’ve built together so far and explore the data. With your stories, insights, and lived experiences, we’re co-creating the Eastern Shore Livability Hub, a powerful online resource designed to make this information accessible to community members, while also being compelling and actionable for the decision-makers shaping the Shore’s future.
If you’ve ever felt the impacts of flooding roads and septic systems, increasing heat, saltwater intrusion into agricultural fields and wells, or shifting seasons on the Shore—your experience matters.
What to Expect at the Workshop:
- A guided, interactive look at our local climate and livability data
- Opportunities to share your stories and insights in ways that make the data relatable
- Connection with neighbors, community partners, and researchers working for a more livable Shore
Whether you’ve participated in the past or are just joining us now, your voice matters.
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Time: 3:00 PM – 6:30 PM (Registration opens at 2:30 PM)
Location: Northampton YMCA (22257 Parsons Circle, Cape Charles, VA 23310)
Dinner: A delicious buffet will be available from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Childcare: Provided during the workshop!
RSVP by August 10 to help us with planning—though walk-ins are always welcome!
About the Author
It would be so valuable if public meetings were accessible through live streaming, so that people who are ill, disabled, or unable to drive could still participate. Claiming to care about people who are struggling while making attendance dependent on social connections or the ability to drive feels very exclusionary. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, engage, and take part.
Up here to the north of you, in a small town far less culturally sophisticated than Cape Charles or Northampton County, all of our town meetings, including the town board, the zoning board of appeals and the planning board, are live-streamed on YouTube and pursuant to our open meetings law, those YouTube videos are public records.
If they aren’t live-streaming down here, perhaps it’s because they prefer you not knowing what is going on down there.
If the come-heres can’t figure out how to live on the shore, maybe it is time for them to move to someone else’s hometown.