We are very proud to celebrate these grant recipients and their ongoing successes:
2023 $100K GRANTEE: Dignity Grows
Dignity Grows' initiative to address period poverty has encountered an exponentially increasing need throughout the Richmond area. The $100,000 investment from Impact 100 will allow Dignity Grows to add additional distribution sites and double their current impact in our community. We are proud to support this organization in their work to provide women and girls with essential supplies to live their happiest and healthiest lives.
2022 $100K GRANTEE: VFCCE
The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education (VFCCE) supports community college students who have experienced foster care. The grant awarded increased the emergency funds desperately needed to overcome students' short-term financial challenges, which are often the reason behind a student's inability to continue his or her studies. The grant also allowed VFCCE to expand its outreach program and enroll more students in our region's community colleges who may need extra support.
2021 $50K GRANTEE: Urban Hope
As the only nonprofit operating in the area that provides rental units for those making less than 50% of the Area Median Income, Urban Hope proposed to expand its rental portfolio with 14 additional units of permanently affordable rental housing for those living on very-low and extremely-low incomes. Impact 100 funding was used in a capital stack, alongside private loans and long-term debt, to secure the completion of the next two units in this portfolio expansion. The project enabled Urban Hope to expand their portfolio size by nearly 65%, serving approximately 50 new neighbors and preventing many evictions.
2021 $50K GRANTEE: REAL LIFE
REAL LIFE serves individuals who have been impacted by incarceration, homelessness, or substance use disorder by giving them an opportunity to overcome the personal and community barriers that hinder their pathway to a a thriving life. The Motherhood Program is person-centered, evidence-based, and designed to guide women through pathway modules that foster positive, healthy, and productive lifestyles while also nurturing parent-child relationships. Impact funding helped to provide an on-site counselor, social-emotional and physical support, including programing for new and expectant mothers.
2020 GRANTEE: The Literacy Lab
Through its Leading Men Fellowship, launched in 2016, The Literacy Lab recruits, trains, and coaches local young men of color to become full-time, pre-K literacy tutors, leading to significant gains for 3- and 4-year-olds. It empowers young men of color to make a measurable impact while also advancing their education and career. Our $100,000 grant helped The Literacy Lab expand the Fellowship in the 2020-21 year—doubling the number of Fellows in Richmond schools from 4 to 8, reaching 120 pre-K students.
2019 GRANTEE: Virginia Repertory Theatre
Over the past 36 years, VA Rep has used theatre to address vital community issues. Our grant helped them transform their approach to human trafficking prevention. They explored development of a theater program to educate 5th-8th graders about human trafficking and to empower them with lifesaving knowledge, skills and resources. With a proven track record, community relationships and reputation in schools across the state, VA Rep can reach over 50,000 children a year and extend their message beyond our community to help inform an advocacy and human trafficking prevention movement throughout our nation.
2018 GRANTEE: ChildSavers
ChildSavers joined forces with Richmond Public Schools (RPS), SCAN, the Robins Foundation and Bon Secours to form the Richmond Public Schools Resiliency Partnership. This partnership will help approximately 4,500 children in the Armstrong High School pyramid receive onsite mental health therapy services. Impact's $100,000 grant allowed expansion into additional schools in the Armstrong High School pyramid with the goal of serving all the schools. ChildSavers intends for this approach to be a sustainable and a replicable model implemented nationally for trauma-sensitive schooling.
2018 GRANTEE: Conexus
Conexus expanded its current services to create a new "Mobile Vision Lane", which included the direct delivery of comprehensive eye screening, exams, and glasses in schools through a mobile eye clinic. In partnership with Communities in Schools (CIS), Conexus identified 13 at-risk schools in Henrico and Chesterfield that are in need of this program, which served 5,124 students in year one. The Mobile Vision project was an extension of an existing program Conexus manages in the City of Richmond with a proven track record of success. The grant funding helped create an in-house team and purchased the necessary equipment to provide a 3-step process for full-service eye care.
2017 GRANTEE: CARITAS
CARITAS creates a safe space to heal and time to rebuild. The CARITAS Center is an innovative, national best-practice model incorporating all solutions for ending homelessness, including providing recovery services for women while also consolidating CARITAS’s existing programs under one roof. A focal point of the CARITAS Center was be the creation of The Healing Place for Women, a 160-bed addiction recovery program supporting women with limited means needing help to overcome addiction. Impact 100 sponsored the Family Visitation Suite, an onsite residential space allowing women at The Healing Place to begin rebuilding their relationships with their children.
2017 GRANTEE: Sacred Heart Center
The Sacred Heart Center is one of the only organizations in the Richmond area dedicated to serving the low and moderate income Latino population, and it creates a hub for the Latino community in the Richmond Metro Area that opens opportunities for social and economic integration, family success, and community leadership. Funding allowed the beginning of the Family Protection Project, which created a local clearinghouse for services, referrals, and legal defense to immigrant families in Richmond.
2016 GRANTEE: Peter Paul Development Center
Peter Paul Development Center supports residents in the east end of Richmond and educates its students by equipping them to serve as positive contributors to their family, community and society. Funding helped complete the Center’s 5,000 square foot capital expansion campaign, nearly doubling the number of children served through their onsite academic program.
2016 GRANTEE: Shalom Farms
Shalom Farms grows and distributes fresh produce to the under-served areas of metro Richmond. Funding helped Shalom Farms relocate to a larger, more accessible farm that tripled production, distribution and educational opportunities to those with limited or no access to fresh foods.
2015 GRANTEE: Greater Richmond Fit4Kids
Greater Richmond Fit4Kids used the grant to provide Richmond Public School students with more fresh produce through Eat Fresh RPS. This collaborative project placed 20 salad bars in area schools, trained lunchroom staff and launched nutrition education in cafeterias.
2015 GRANTEE: Children's Home Society
Children’s Home Society, in collaboration with Better Housing Coalition, launched The Possibilities Project to help youth aging out of foster care transition to adulthood. Program participants received housing and an array of support services needed to reach their potential.
2014 GRANTEE: Higher Achievement
Higher Achievement’s rigorous after-school and summer academic program gives youth from underserved communities their best opportunity to succeed in middle school — and in life. Striving to close the educational opportunity gap during the pivotal middle school years, Higher Achievement used its grant to partner with the MathScience Innovation Center to update its science, technology, engineering and math curriculum. Updated offerings included new field trip opportunities and hands-on elective classes.
2014 GRANTEE: Greater Richmond ARC
Each year Greater Richmond ARC helps over 1,400 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They work with families to create life-fulfilling opportunities for these individuals. Greater Richmond ARC used its grant to build Richmond’s first all-inclusive park and playground. Located on 2.4 acres in Northside, the ARCpark fully accommodates individuals with disabilities and welcomes those without.
2013 GRANTEE: YWCA of Richmond
YWCA services include recovery and life-building programs for victims of domestic and sexual violence. The Impact 100 grant helped launch the Rapid Rehousing Transformation Project to quickly move survivors and their children into private spaces to increase their self-sufficiency and aid their recovery.
2012 GRANTEE: Art 180
Support from Impact 100 helped Art 180 establish a new teen art center—named Atlas—in Jackson Ward. The grant has allowed ART180 to target a new demographic, establish a presence in the City’s Art District and provide new opportunities for leadership development for some of Richmond’s most vulnerable youth. Most importantly, Art 180 is building community by inviting the public into the ART180 space to see what these teens have to say — and to support them in their growth as young people.
2011 GRANTEES: Communities in Schools of Richmond & FeedMore
Without enough food or proper nutrition, children in Richmond’s East End cannot benefit from the educational opportunities offered to them. This grant helped expand the number of children receiving free weekend meals through the BackPack program and introduced a Mobile Pantry program to improve family nutrition and strengthen the bond between families and their neighborhood schools.
2010 GRANTEE: Southside Child Development Center
Beleaguered by high overhead costs due to an aging building in disrepair, Southside Child Development Center (SCDC) simply had to be fixed to continue serving the many children of low-income working families that need their high-quality care. Unfortunately, SCDC ceased operations in June 2016.