West Virginia Rural Health Access Program

In keeping with its mission to improve access and quality of health care in West Virginia, the Center for Rural Health Development, Inc. is providing leadership for a multi-faceted program to improve access to health care services in rural communities.

A steering committee and workgroups comprised of experts in rural health issues advise the project throughout the state of West Virginia. As lead agency, the Center administers the grant funds and provides staff support for the programs.

The West Virginia Rural Health Access Program involves work in five areas: a loan fund, recruitment and retention, network development, leadership development and transportation.

The program is in its second phase, recently receiving $1.2 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Southern Rural Access Program. An application to the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation for matching dollars is pending.

During the first phase, the program received over $3.7 million to improve access to health care in rural West Virginia. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation each contributed over $1.2 million through the Southern Rural Access Program (SRAP).

The Southern Rural Access Program is a long-term effort by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at improving access to healthcare in underserved rural areas of the South. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, East Texas and West Virginia are grant recipients of Phase I of this $13.9 million three-year effort. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, NJ, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and healthcare. It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; to assure that all Americans have access to basic healthcare at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse — tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is an independent foundation established in 1944 by Michael and Sarah Benedum, natives respectively of Bridgeport and Blacksville, West Virginia. Michael Benedum operated his worldwide oil and gas business from corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they moved in 1907. They named the Foundation in memory of their only child, Claude Worthington, who died in 1918 at age 20. In creating the Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Benedum expressed the wish that grantmaking be focused in West Virginia and Pittsburgh. The Foundation's policy is to allocate no less than 5 percent of the market value of its assets each year in support of its charitable activities, including the grants program. Since its inception in 1944, the Foundation has made over 6,000 grants totaling more than $226,000,000.