VPM Impact Initiatives

Dementia Documentary Series
Welcome to the series of documentaries, companion workshops and resources centered on dementia. The documentaries are distributed nationally to Public Television stations and the companion workshops are local to central Virginia.

Facing Addiction
This series is a project of VPM News, examining the opioid epidemic through the voices of people in recovery, family members, health experts, scientists, lawmakers, state leaders and other stakeholders. VPM News presented a week of radio features and digital components that looked at the scope of opioid overdoses in the state, pathways to addiction, recovery options, changing views by law enforcement and policy responses.

The Great American Read
The Great American Read was an eight-part series with viewer participation to select America’s favorite novel, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels. It investigated writers’ fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what the 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.

Vietnam: Virginia Remembers
Vietnam: Virginia Remembers is a multi-media educational initiative, the biggest in our history, designed to educate our community about the Vietnam War and how it affected our neighbors and family members. Through community conversations earlier in the year and our partnerships with the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond and the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial in Charlottesville, we realized that minimal time is spent teaching about the Vietnam War in school and it’s rarely talked about by the people who were there.

Consequently, there is a great lack of understanding about a War that went on for 10 years that many of us experienced and are affected by to this day. Through the power of our media and community partnerships, we hope to help our community to learn and understand--more.

Where We Live
VPM News launched this ongoing series in 2018. We’ll be looking at a range of issues, from affordability and housing policy, to homelessness and segregation.