OUR STORY AND Who We Are

How Innovate Fulton, Inc. Started

An Organization By Fulton For Fulton!!

Chuck D’Aprix, the founding President and Executive Director of Innovate Fulton, Inc., moved to the Fulton Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia in 2016.    As a career urban revitalization professional and a longtime city-dweller, he fell in love with the rich character and diversity of Fulton.  Chuck became actively engaged in the neighborhood and was soon serving on the boards of the Civic Association and Neighborhood Resource Center a dynamic community-based nonprofit providing an array of vital services to this long-underserved neighborhood.

Chuck was perplexed by one aspect of his new neighborhood.  The neighborhood commercial district in Fulton Hill, despite a smattering of successful retail and service businesses, was lagging economically when placed against the backdrop Richmond’s robust economic growth   He set out to find why.   

Discussions with long-time residents and a visit to the city history museum revealed a painful chapter in the neighborhood’s history.   Part of the neighborhood adjacent to the Fulton Hill commercial district, like too-many neighborhoods of color nationally, had fallen victim to an ill-conceived urban renewal program decades earlier.  A once-thriving African American neighborhood had been decimated leaving disinvestment and rancor in its federally-funded wake   You can hear more about that sad chapter in Richmond’s history here.

Although Fulton Hill’s business district  itself had not fallen prey to the urban renewal scheme, it was obvious the culture of governmental disinvestment had seeped into Fulton Hill’s commercial corridor sapping the economic vitality from a once-thriving neighborhood business district.  

As an urban revitalization professional who had directed several economic development agencies and consulted for countless others, Chuck knew that the urban renewal scheme of years prior was only part of the problem confronting the commercial district.  Fulton Hill’s business district battled an enemy familiar to urban commercial corridors across the nation, namely suburban shopping centers and interstate highways.  Those two factors coupled with institutional racism drew the last breath from many an urban commercial district, Greater Fulton’s included.

Yet Chuck knew that many cities across the country were tackling this problem of urban disinvestment with creativity and energy.   Urban commercial corridors were even being revitalized in other parts of Richmond.   At a meeting with neighborhood leaders Chuck asked, “Why has no one addressed our commercial district here in Fulton Hill?”  To his surprise, it turns out they had.  In fact many people had.

The Virginia office of The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) a national nonprofit dedicated to community revitalization joined forces with the Neighborhood Resource Center in 2010-2011 and directed a grassroots effort they dubbed Greater Fulton’s Future.  Several issues, social, historic and economic, were addressed by Greater Fulton’s Future, including the struggling commercial district in Fulton Hill.

Many of the Greater Fulton’s Future recommendations were implemented in the commercial district.   There were streetscape improvements, a building rehabilitated for a dentist’s office, a doctor’s office opened, and colorful murals were painted on many structures dotting the district.   However, as is often the case, momentum waned and by 2018 the commercial district still lacked vibrancy while Richmond itself drew national attention for its robust economic revitalization.  One neighbor noted, “Richmond thrives, and Fulton gets left behind… it’s the same old story—we need to take care ourselves, we can’t wait for outsiders to help.”  That started Chuck thinking.

One day while walking the neighborhood and chatting with business owners in the commercial district, Chuck decided to put his urban revitalization experience into action.   He called some neighbors and he committed to work full-time on a pro bono basis to help revitalize the commercial district.  One of the neighbors loudly said, “What is needed is innovation—we need to be innovative!”  Thus Innovate Fulton Inc. was hatched. Office space was donated, volunteers recruited, a work plan developed and Innovate Fulton, Inc. began to take shape. 

Two things became abundantly clear.  First, this needed to be a grassroots effort that was volunteer driven and second, the organization needed to reflect the racial, income, and age diversity of the neighborhood. Those goals were met when a highly diverse group of forty people arrived for the initial meeting of innovate Fulton, Inc.   Those goals remain paramount—always. 

Plans were developed, the Greater Fulton community was actively engaged and input from all sectors of the community was sought.  Door-to-door visits and a thousand surveys yielded abundant community opinions.  In fact, Innovate Fulton was built on the engagement of the entire Greater Fulton community.

Chuck D’Aprix said, “ This was never my project - this is the neighborhood’s project. I did a little organizing, but Innovate Fulton is built on the hard work of generations of Greater Fulton residents. It really is a project by Fulton for Fulton.”

Our Board of Directors

Advisory Board Members

The Advisory Board of Innovate Fulton is composed of approximately forty members. Here are some of those members. If you are interested in joining us, just let us know. We would love to have you.

Chuck D’Aprix, President and Executive Director

Tom Balaban

Emma Byrne

Mahari Chabwera

Grant Collier

Paul DiPasquale

Tracy Foard

Cheryl Groce-Wright

Daniel Klein

Michael Madia

Joshua McMahon

Carol Walls

Ashley White