CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – The United Way of South Hampton Roads has awarded more than $1.8 million in grants to 16 non-profits through the Hope & Healing Fund, established in the wake of the mass shooting last November at a Walmart in Chesapeake.
The following 16 organizations will receive a portion of the grant money:
- Blakey Weaver Counseling Center Inc.
- Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters
- CHIP of South Hampton Roads
- Eastern Virginia Medical School
- Healthy Chesapeake Inc.
- HEB Foundation
- Ketchmore Kids
- League of Advocates
- Micro Nonprofit Network
- New Vision Youth Services Inc.
- Quality of Life Inc.
- Stop the Violence 757
- Sylver Strategies Inc.
- Teens with a Purpose
- Virginia Hospital Research & Education Foundation
- Walk in It
The awards range from $37,500 to $54,000 for individual applications and $95,883 to $225,000 for collaborative applications.
The Hope & Healing Fund got an initial $1 million gift from the Walmart Foundation as well as more than $1.2 million in individual and corporate gifts. To fund the awards, $900,000 was taken from the Hope & Healing Fund and the United Way of South Hampton Roads matched it with another $900,000 from its own funding due to what it said was the quality of the applications and aligning with its priority focus areas of health, economic mobility and education.
“We are honored to be able to provide support to these organizations doing critical and innovative work in our community,” said Kelsey Mohring, chief marketing and strategy officer at the United Way of South Hampton Roads, in a statement. “Through our coalition meetings, we’ve gotten to hear from those impacted by violence and those on the front lines working to find solutions. We hope these grants and participation in this coalition will provide the knowledge, support and capacity building we all need to make a measurable difference for our community.”
The United Way sent out a request for proposals for the grants in February, and to be eligible for the grant, applicants needed to be a non-profit with 501(c)3 status or a fiscal sponsor, and agree to devote 25% of funding program activities to Chesapeake residents.
Grant recipients will be required to keep participating in the Hope & Healing Coalition and share their progress and challenges, and identify best practices to be applied in other communities.
