Applications are now open for the Richmond Health Equity Fund 2024-2025 cycle! The deadline to submit applications is June 23, 2024.
Richmond is a city of health disparity. Census data show how extreme heat, mental health challenges, and lack of access to healthy foods all echo city redlining, when banks and city institutions used discriminatory lending practices to keep Richmond neighborhoods segregated.
Addressing health disparities requires a willingness to look at these histories and to take on some of the most challenging issues facing our city today: housing, food access, chronic disease, and maternal health. All over the city, organizations and community leaders are rising to these challenges. And the Richmond Health Equity Fund (HEF) is here to help them take on this necessary work!
The HEF invests in programs, initiatives, and leaders working to improve health and quality of life in communities experiencing deep health disparities and the longstanding impacts of racism. While HEF support is financial, Program Officer Shaleetta Drawbaugh also works closely with selected partners on program development. “What I like about the HEF is that we roll up our sleeves and work alongside the partner to create a bridge into critical gap-filling funding,” she says.
The HEF has already supported community work with partners like Daily Planet Health Services, Gateway Community Health, Virginia Prison Birth Project, Urban Baby Beginnings, and Waymakers Foundation, among others.
Any community leader, collaborative, or organization working in the City of Richmond on any of the following health disparity focus areas is eligible to apply:
- Access to care and health education
- Food access and security
- Maternal and child health
- Mental and behavioral health
- Substance use, treatment and recovery
- Underlying health conditions
- Other health outcomes where data and community voices suggest disparities
Organizations that have applied for HEF funding previously are eligible to reapply, and currently funded partners are eligible to submit an application for new scopes of work. If this work sounds like you or someone you know, explore the HEF application today.
Want to learn more? Plan to attend a virtual information session on Thursday, June 13, from 12 – 1 p.m., or contact hef@vdh.virginia.gov for help with the application.
