The MEDARVA Foundation is looking for new projects to fund.
The foundation, a part of MEDARVA Healthcare, is accepting applications for 2018 grants through Feb. 1. Grants are available for nonprofits and groups that enhance access to care and work to improve health. The foundation will review applicants and may contact them for interviews in March or April, with grants to be announced in June and delivered in July. Visit their site to find grant applications and additional information.
The foundation provided about $300,000 in grants in 2017, according to Mary Jane Hogue, chief innovation officer for MEDARVA.
The foundation had previously partnered with The Community Foundation to screen grant applicants but this year will do its own screening.
“We definitely wanted to open up the arena,” says Hogue. “There may be a lot of great things out there we are not aware of.”
MEDARVA Healthcare traces its roots to the old Richmond Eye and Ear Hospital, founded in the early 1950s. MEDARVA refers to the art of medical excellence, according to a video.
Past grants include $50,000 to Crossover Healthcare Ministry, the nonprofit that each year provides health care to more than 6,500 metro Richmond residents, and $35,000 to Virginia Voice for its program providing audio reading of newspapers and magazines for people dealing with vision loss or other conditions.
“It keeps people involved and engaged,” says Hogue.
About $50,000 in grants have been used as seed money for research at Virginia’s three medical schools in a separate grant program, and MEDARVA also has committed to $750,000 over five years to the endowment for the Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services, says Hogue.
"It's so important for us in terms of sustainability," says Sally Graham, executive director for the free clinic. "Their gift is hugely important to us."
The clinic opens its new, 20,000-square-foot facility on Feb. 2.
The MEDARVA Foundation has also supported the Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center and provided workshops and education programs.
For additional questions or concerns, call Hogue at 804-545-7052 or email grants@medarva.com.
“We wanted to get the word out that we are taking applications, and that we are open to new and novel ideas that impact health in our community,” says Hogue.
MEDARVA Healthcare also includes its Stony Point Surgery Center, its office building in the West Creek Medical Park in Short Pump and a physician network.
CAPSULES
A roundup of the week’s health and medicine news
- Open enrollment for Obamacare health insurance was shortened from 12 weeks to six for 2018, but the number of Virginians seeking coverage was comparable to the previous year. About 403,000 commonwealth residents enrolled for 2018, compared with 360,000 who were covered through the Affordable Care Act in 2017. Nationally, preliminary reports indicate an enrollment decline from 9.2 million to 8.8 million. “Enrollments for Virginia was quite good, and better than expected, given the short open enrollment period,” said Jill Hanken of the Virginia Poverty Law Center in an email. The nonprofit provides a service called Enroll Virginia that helps people in need navigate ACA hurdles. Open enrollment ended Dec. 15, but some people may still be eligible to sign up for coverage if they have a change in life such as a move, marriage, a birth or adoption, or loss of health coverage, or if they had health insurance in 2017 through Obamacare but their plan is not available to them for 2018, according to Hanken. Enroll Virginia workers are available to answer questions and help with special enrollments at 888-393-5132.
- It's been a record year for births at the Women's Hospital at Henrico Doctors' Hospital, where they've had 4,000 babies born since the first of the year. The previous record was 3,872 births, set last year. The $40 million renovated facility opened Dec.15, 2016, and its Level III neonatal intensive care unit opened this fall. The record-breaking babe is Mitchell Noonkester, son of Lauren and Seth Noonkester, below.
Photo courtesy Henrico Doctors' Hospital
