On December 5, 2022, the Board of Trustees of the Williamsburg Health Foundation (WHF) approved 13 grants worth nearly $700,000 for local organizations that improve the health of the Greater Williamsburg community.  “These recent grants raise the total of grants awarded by the Foundation over the past 25 years to over 100 million dollars,” said Carol L. Sale, President & CEO of WHF. 

            “This is an important milestone for the community,” said Sale. “It represents careful stewardship by current and past trustees and staff to make sure this community asset grows while distributing critical funds to improve the health of our community.”

            In this latest round of grants, the emphasis has been on children’s mental health. “In our community, our commonwealth, and our nation, there is a mental health crisis, especially a children’s mental health crisis,” said Allison Brody, director of community engagement.  “This made our program team take a hard look at ways to help more young people.”  

             “One thing we do is to try to disrupt the cycle of family violence which traumatizes children,” said Brody, referencing a grant to the Center for Child and Family Services. “We granted money to support Bacon Street Youth and Family Services to provide individual and family counseling services to clients experiencing mental health and substance use issues.”

            WHF increased its support of Postpartum Support Virginia and its program Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies which it provides in partnership with Child Development Resources and their Motherhood program.

             The Foundation also continues to support community understanding of trauma and its many lifelong repercussions through the

Greater Williamsburg Trauma Informed Community Network, or TICN, which is administered by United Way.

            “We are also helping children mental health in the simplest way of all – getting children out to play,” said Sale.   In the past few years, WHF has given small grants of $20,000 to Virginia Legacy Soccer to provide soccer to the community in various ways, including, most recently, offering it free of charge through the James City County Department of Recreation.  Participation in the soccer program has exploded.  It has gone from a couple hundred participants to over 700 in the last season. 

            Virginia Legacy Soccer Club estimates that 1,000 children will participate in the recreational soccer league each soccer season, and it just received $80,000 to support their play, “So much of what makes a child healthy emotionally and physically is having the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, so we see a diverse group of children taking advantage of this opportunity,” said Brody.   

For full listing of grants click here >>>

National Philanthropy Day was November 15. Giving Tuesday falls on November 29. Let’s start the month of November by myth busting around nonprofits and “the overhead myth.”

On Thursday October 27, 2022, the Williamsburg Health Foundation (WHF) hosted its annual awards breakfast about “Doing Good Better: Nonprofit Capacity Building.” WHF describes capacity building for a nonprofit as “strengthening internal structures, systems and processes, management, leadership, governance” and more.

As part of the event, WHF produced a video about the Overhead Myth. As the video explains, there is a cultural assumption that nonprofits should not spend money on sustaining and growing the organization.

          On Thursday, October 27, 2022, Williamsburg Health Foundation presents its 2022 Annual Award to NetworkPeninsula, a nonprofit serving other nonprofits to increase their capacity to effectively achieve their missions now and in the future. The theme of the annual awards breakfast is Doing Good Better: Nonprofit Capacity Building.

         “Williamsburg Health Foundation recognizes NetworkPeninsula because of its service to and advocacy for nonprofits and the work they do,” said Carol L. Sale, President and CEO of Williamsburg Health Foundation.

         NetworkPeninsula launched in 2007 as NetworkWilliamsburg with 11 nonprofit members. Today, NetworkPeninsula’s programs have reached more than 300 nonprofits with multiple opportunities including staff and board trainings, a grants database, networking and peer-to-peer groups, as well as items donated by local businesses and individuals.

         “The health of a community and those who live in it is a shared responsibility,” said Sale. “In Greater Williamsburg, few things are as critical to the health and well-being as the capacity of our nonprofits to meet the needs of residents.”

         “Nonprofits in our community do good every single day.  They care for all of us and help us to care for our neighbors now and in the future. What we call ‘capacity building’ helps them do good and do it better,” said Allison Brody, who leads WHF’s capacity-building work. “Helping organizations become stronger and more effective both as an individual agency and when working together in community with others, is part of WHF’s strategic work.”

         The Williamsburg Health Foundation builds organizational and community capacity as part of its strategic approach to grantmaking.   “We offer different opportunities for organizations to learn and grow and to work together more effectively,” said Sale.  “NetworkPeninsula is an important partner in this work.”

         WHF produced five videos for this event.  Three short videos of less than two minutes each explore WHF’s capacity-building programs. One video explains what nonprofits call, “the overhead myth,” the cultural assumption that nonprofits should not spend money on their own infrastructure and development. All of those videos are available at WHF’s YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/WburgCommunityHealth

         “At the health foundation, we work hard to dispel the overhead myth.  For this reason, we are happy to shine a spotlight on capacity building,” said Sale.

At the end of August 2022, Carol L. Sale, RN MSN informed the WHF Board of Trustees and staff that she plans to step down as President and CEO of the Williamsburg Health Foundation at the end of this calendar year due to family health concerns. “It has been my privilege to serve the Greater Williamsburg community in this role and I look forward to watching the growth and good work of this Foundation as it continues to improve the health and well-being of those living in our community in partnership with so many dedicated nonprofits and other organizations”. The Board of Trustees has formed a Search Committee and will be posting the position to accept applications from prospective candidates in the coming weeks. Please check back for further information on this process.

On Monday, June 6, 2022, the Board of Trustees of the Williamsburg Health Foundation (WHF) met and approved 22 grants worth nearly four million dollars.  “This is the second year of implementation of our most recent strategic plan,” said Carol L. Sale, WHF President and CEO. “We are pleased to be investing strategically in so many good causes and programs impacting the health of our community,”

            Under the strategic goal to “Target behavioral and social risk factors that influence the health of individuals throughout the life span,” the largest funded program is SHIP, the School Health Initiative Program. Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools partner with WHF, teachers, students, parents, and other community partners to build life-long, healthy habits in schools.

“We continue to see our community’s children interested and participating in healthy clubs and activities like gardening, Zumba, cooking, and running clubs thanks to the SHIP program,” said Sale.

According to Senior Program Officer, Bill D. Pribble, “The annual Run the DOG 5K and Sleighbell 5K both demonstrate how successful this program is.  Not only do hundreds of students participate annually but also their family members and school faculty and staff.  At the Foundation, we believe that SHIP participation among Williamsburg-area school children will make ours a healthier community both now and in the future.”

            The largest share of grants in this first round of grants for 2022 is to “Strengthen the healthcare safety-net for uninsured and underinsured individuals.” This goal encompasses the following three areas: advanced primary care, behavioral health services, and medication access, and all three areas received significant investment.

            Over the past few years, WHF has looked at how to effectively fund the provision of prescription medications within our community.  As the grants to the clinics demonstrate, WHF has believed the most effective manner for making sure safety-net patients receive prescription medication is to embed those services entirely within the individual clinics. “The approach of giving the clinics management of their own patient assistance programs is proving to be the most cost-effective and direct for our community,” said Sale.

            “Our entire staff and board are laser focused on how to most effectively and strategically support the health of our community,” said Sale.

For full listing of grants click here >>>

“Older Adults: Where We Are and Where We’re Going,” new research from the Williamsburg Health Foundation, provides both qualitative and quantitative data to inform and catalyze collaborative approaches to making ours a more age-friendly community. With a higher percentage of older adults than a typical Virginia community, Greater Williamsburg has the opportunity to improve overall community well-being and quality of life though a focus on this important and diverse population. The Williamsburg Health Foundation looks forward to working with various partners in this worthwhile endeavor.

For more information, contact Paulette Parker at Williamsburg Health Foundation.

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