An aerial view of UVA Health, which includes the UVA School of Medicine and School of Nursing.
UVA Cancer Center is celebrating its designation by the National Cancer Institute as Virginia’s only Comprehensive Cancer Center by awarding community grants of up to $10,000 to nonprofits, local governments, hospitals and other community groups to address cancer-related health disparities.
“We know that our recent achievement of comprehensive designation would not have been possible without the collaboration and innovative ideas of our community partners across Virginia and West Virginia,” said Wendy Cohn, UVA Cancer Center’s associate director for community outreach and engagement. “Through our community grant program, we want to say thank you for the partnership and hard work our community has put into eliminating cancer and cancer related disparities across Virginia.”
As many as five grants of up to $10,000 for a one-year project will be provided to community groups that address the cancer center’s service area of 3.2 million people. The service area includes eastern West Virginia and much of Virginia, ranging across 87 counties from Southwest and Southside Virginia to Culpeper and portions of Northern Virginia.
The grant program is open to community-based nonprofits, advocacy organizations, faith-based institutions, neighborhood committees, local municipalities, academic institutions and hospitals. Proposed projects should address cancer health education, prevention, early detection or survivorship, along with cancer-related health disparities or health equity.
More information and application details are available at med.virginia.edu/community-outreach-engagement. To be considered for a grant, applicants must email the Intent to Submit form found on the site to cancerinfo@hscmail.mcc.virginia.edu by 5 p.m. July 1.
Finding better ways to prevent and treat cancer are urgent missions of UVA Cancer Center, which earlier this year was designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. The designation recognizes elite cancer centers with the most outstanding cancer programs in the nation. UVA is one of just 52 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute and the only one in Virginia. Comprehensive Cancer Centers must meet rigorous standards for innovative research and leading-edge clinical trials, as well as demonstrate enhanced outreach and education to their service areas.
