Candidate Interview – Jannan Holmes

Jannan Holmes found more than a passion for mental health issues when she came to Mary Washington in 1985, she found a heart for service. Learn more about Holmes in our final candidate interview.

FXBG Advance: Tell us about yourself and how you got here?

JH: I have lived, worked, and served in Fredericksburg for 30 years. I came to the city in 1985 to attend Mary Washington College, graduated in 1989, and then returned to the city in 1995.

I was at Mary Washington to become a German teacher. But late in my sophomore year I took a psychology of women class and loved it – so much so that I decided to do a women’s study major, which the college didn’t offer at the time. So I created a special major that the faculty approved, and double-majored in women’s studies and in German.

As a part of my women’s study degree, I did an internship with the Rappahannock Council against Sexual Assault, which at the time was called the Fredericksburg Area Rape Crisis program, and I was trained to respond to someone who had been assaulted.

I was pretty scared holding that pager on my shift waiting for a call, but I did it anyway. That was my first service to Fredericksburg. I also did groups on campus about safe dating and consent, because I wanted to make Mary Washington safer for everybody.

FXBG Advance: Where did you go after graduation?

JH: I went home and worked at Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center for 3.5 years, and realized I loved doing mental health work. But I needed a master’s degree in order to move forward. So I went to Virginia Commonwealth University and got a master’s degree in social work.

Social work made sense to me, because it was about respecting and caring for all people, and it was about the person within the environment. Sometimes if the environment isn’t working, you have to change the system.

One of the reasons I’m running is that I really do believe that all people matter, no exceptions.

After getting my master’s I got married and came back to Fredericksburg, and I went to work at the Community Services Board as an intensive in-home family therapist. In that role, I did home visits and got to see multi-stress families.

From there I carried with me some of the struggles some of the families in Fredericksburg go through.

After this I turned to contract social work at Spotsylvania County Public Schools for four years and worked with people on the autism spectrum. I also did a social skills group in the school system for children facing emotional challenges.

I’ve been doing private practice ever since.

FXBG Advance: How did you transition from volunteer to politician?

JH: When my own children started public schools in Fredericksburg, I volunteered to help any way I could. I was a weekly volunteer doing social skills groups for children on the autism spectrum for two years.

In 2009-10 we had a blizzard, and the kids missed a lot of school. The superintendent wanted to put 20 minutes on to the end of the day to make up for all the lost time. I did a lot of research and found out we didn’t need the extra time. With that information in hand, I went and spoke before the school board.

The superintendent said I was right, but he was concerned that if test scores came back really low, he would be worried that he hadn’t done enough to ensure good performance. This additional 20 minutes was to make sure we had the time we needed to achieve.

So now, I thought, we’re talking about scores over what’s best for children.

In 2010 I ran against an 18-year incumbent, won, and have been on school board ever since.

I had decided that this would be my last term on school board, in part because I think it’s healthy for boards to have change that brings fresh new voices.

It took a year for me to figure out what to do next. I did the Sorensen Political Leaders program through the University of Virginia, which is about bipartisanship, respect, and civility in politics.

So I traveled through nine different regions of Virginia over ten months and learned a lot about other places with a cohort of about 35-40 people from a range of ideologies. What was reflected back to me was how much I talked about Fredericksburg. So I thought it made sense for me to put my energy and advocacy into Fredericksburg at-large and run for City Council.

FXBG Advance: The schools have been through a rough patch. What do you think you can do on the City Council side to help schools that you couldn’t do on the School Board side?

JH: One of the things I’d like to do on the City Council side – and this has to do with achievement and the whole child – is ensure that kids have access to sports and other programs they don’t currently have easy access to. I learned about this through the lunch buddy and breakfast buddy programs. There, some kids would tell me they desperately wanted to participate in sports or other activities because they couldn’t access.

On the City Council side, we can bring programs into neighborhoods where people can’t easily access said program. Or, we can help kids access the programs they want.

FXBG Advance: Kids are a big part of your life. What other issues are you concerned about that you believe you can positively effect on Council?

JH: Helping our community to develop a vision for the Fredericksburg we want to see in the future. And that means looking at responsible growth. For years we had been talking to City Council about needing another school. The council kept saying we don’t have the money.

I want to make sure that when we are growing, we are planning for our future. Whether it be schools, water treatment, parks and rec, among others. We need to keep up with infrastructure needs.

FXBG Advance: Half this city’s population is ALICE and is sharply divided racially. How can you work with Council to get more diversity of voices in play?

JH: We have to go out into the communities that are not just downtown. I want to make sure we’re thinking about all of Fredericksburg.

We had two murders in Fredericksburg within the last year, and I’ve only been asked about them at one meet-and-greet.

I’m glad we have a task force on teen violence, but I want to see that work continue and make sure we are doing what we can prevention-wise so that people can have what they need to avoid things like gangs.

I know that younger kids really crave doing things after school besides sitting at home. They want to do other things, and I want to make that happen for them.

FXBG Advance: You’ve talked a lot about access, which touches on transportation and growth. How do we improve transportation and manage growth for people in this region?

JH: One of the things I bring to the table is consensus-building. Part of what I’m always doing is trying to understand people’s reactions. What’s their fear? What’s concerning them? Then I want to sit down and talk about it with these people. I do it professionally, and I do it personally. This is key to addressing these issues.

Part of dealing with concerns around growth is dispelling some of the misinformation that emerges. When the Accessory Dwelling Unit controversy was happening, it would have helped to put out a one-pager that says this is what’s happening, this is what’s proposed, and this is what’s happened in other places where it has passed.

FXBG Advance: What are your top three priorities if elected?

JH: We need to talk about where we want Fredericksburg to be in five years, ten years. I want to make sure that we have a shared vision for the city that we want. And finally, I want to serve all of Fredericksburg.

It sounds pollyannish, but I mean it.

We must reach out to the entire city. Not just the areas where we have problems life violence. There are lots of parts to this city that are not downtown.

FXBG Advance: How are you going to get the issues that affect the larger city front-and-center before the Council?

JH: I’m going to continue to be in the schools. I’m going to continue to have lunch buddies.

Also, I’ll be accessible. If someone invites me to go to an HOA meeting or civic meeting, I’ll do my best to be there. That was my rule on School Board. And I’ll continue that on Council. This is important to me, and I’ll continue that.

This is how you learn about the problems people face.

Last year there was a breakfast program with city leaders, and one of the kids I sat with was in a subdivision off Route 1. This kid said they couldn’t get to friends’ houses and couldn’t get downtown to do Parks and Rec things because they had to travel on Route 1 and Lafayette. Let’s make it easier for them to get around or bring the programs to them.

FXBG Advance: Fredericksburg does have issues with levels of mistrust among the many communities who call this area home. How do we begin to build stronger connections between these communities?

JH: At the school system we’ve worked to onboard parents who are new to our community so that they know how to use the tools available to them and their students. This is a start.

At the level of Council, I’m bringing expertise in education and mental health. Education is the second largest item in the budget. The mental health piece of that is caring for all people and addressing needs in a preventative way that avoids the larger problems later on.

FXBG Advance: What can we do differently to address the homeless issue?

JH: I think we are doing things differently. Micah has the respite program for people coming out of the hospital, so they can go from the hospital to the respite program while they’re trying to get an apartment.

We also need to make sure that the Community Services Board has the money to support the mental health needs of our population, and to support our housing insecure population’s mental health needs.

We have a mental health provider crisis. There simply aren’t enough in this area.

Still, I love that we respite housing, and Micah, and are working toward the Jeremiah Community.

In the schools we’ve gotten a grant to fund a mental health counselor in the school. And we have another grant for the schools that pays for people to come in on a contract basis.

If we can start things there, though it’s small, we can then grow it.

FXBG Advance: What are your thoughts on affordable housing?

JH: Not my area of expertise, though I am reading up on this now. A big part of it is getting more housing. How do we balance more housing that doesn’t compromise the Fredericksburg that we love with the need for affordable housing? That’s a piece we have to work out. We have to have that conversation.

Everyone says they want affordable housing, but when we start talking about it, people raise concerns.

We also need to work with our neighbors on this issue.

I want to be part of those discussions, and how it’s not going to completely change the fabric of Fredericksburg.

FXBG Advance: What is it that makes Fredericksburg special?

JH: For me it’s that “community feel.” To know a lot of your neighbors. When someone is in need, we have rallied. When you go to the store, you know people.

If we create area plans that allow people to meet their daily needs in their community, you don’t have to go up Route 3 or Route 1 to get everything. This is what creates that community.

I’m excited about Council, and I hope I get to serve. I don’t have all the answers. I learned a whole lot when I joined the School Board. I’ll bring that same level of energy and engagement to the Council.

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