Our ministry has been a proud sponsor of the RVA East End Festival since 2016, so we were thrilled to join residents from the East End and the larger Richmond area recently to celebrate this great community.
The RVA East End Music Festival has become a signature local event celebrating the gifts of local talent, the spirit of community collaboration and the importance of arts and music to our students. The festival’s intention and implementation are prime examples of the power of community in addressing community challenges, and in this case, the need for continued investments in educational attainment and prevention strategies to support youth development.
“Because of this annual event, literally hundreds of 7th District students have benefited from their exposure to the arts, and more enhanced learning potential,” Joey Trapani, chief operating officer of Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital, shares. “Whether playing an instrument, singing in a performance group or expressing themselves in the visual arts, Richmond Public School students are having a richer experience and lighting their own paths for success moving forward.”
There was an incredible show of support for this community and its students, and we enjoyed being a part of the celebrations. We are proud to serve with these leaders and many other organizational leaders and neighbors who believe that this collaborative effort will change lives and continue to demonstrate the power of community.
Our ministry’s mission inspires us to continuously strive to improve individual and community health beyond the walls of our hospitals through advocacy, community partnerships and a focus on social determinants.
We are especially proud of the work we’ve done to support the East End community.
Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital (RCH) is an urban hospital with 104 beds located in Richmond’s East End.
It includes:
- an emergency department
- a behavioral health unit
- a progressive care unit
In recent years, the hospital has undergone more than $9.8 million in capital improvements on the Richmond Community Hospital campus to better serve patients. This includes a new Good Health Pharmacy with increased access to care and lab expansions. Additionally, we are currently investing an additional $22 million on the Richmond Community Hospital campus, which includes a new adult behavioral health partial hospitalization program (the first of its kind in the East End) which compliments the existing in-patient services currently offered, upgraded mammography services and a new MRI suite.
As for the East End community, we’ve been thrilled to invest in the progress and revitalization that has been happening and are proud to have supported local businesses as well as residents over the years. Most recently, we partnered with the Richmond Police Department on RVA C.O.O.K.S, an eight-week culinary program which addressed the root causes of youth violence and taught sustainable skills to at-risk youth. We look forward to hosting another session in the fall. And, we’re in the process of developing new community green space at the Bon Secours Sarah Garland Jones Center for Healthy Living.
Since 2018, Bon Secours has invested more than $19 million in community benefit to support organizations and initiatives throughout metro Richmond, addressing the social determinants of health for residents. Of this amount, more than $8 million has been invested in Richmond’s East End. East End Community Benefit recipients include dozens of local businesses through our Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) program, Habitat for Humanity, Richmond Public Schools, The Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Club, Challenge Discovery, the Peter Paul Development Center, Project: HOMES and the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust.
And finally, our nonprofit ministry provides a wide range of services beyond traditional care delivery to support our communities – including but not limited to mobile health clinics for the uninsured, forensic nursing services, transportation services in the East End, fresh food access, economic equity services and career development assistance – to support the health and well-being of the whole person.
Bon Secours is committed to treating every patient who comes through its doors with dignity and respect.
Learn more about our ministry’s community commitment.
