Gregory B. Davis Foundation Receives Grant for the Roanoke Valley Breast Cancer Coalition from Susan
Special to The Daily Herald
Considering the number of women in the Roanoke Valley area being diagnosed with breast cancer is increasing; the Roanoke Valley Breast Cancer Coalition through a recent grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, will now be able to continue to focus on the survivorship stage to strengthen the safety net for women to remain on the breast cancer continuum for life.
The coalition’s previous efforts have centered on the five stages of the breast cancer continuum of care (awareness, screening, diagnosis, survivorship and quality of life/palliative care). The RVBCC’s partnership with Komen Triangle Affiliate has allowed them to develop and sustain programs along the entire continuum.
“The mission is to now create a strong safety net and supportive environment for African American and underserved women to stay on the continuum of care and survive” said Audrey Hardy, project coordinator and board member of the Gregory B. Davis Foundation. “The ‘Saving Our Sisters-Part II’ project will be a continuation of previous years’ work.”
The Gregory B. Davis Foundation, a founding member of the RVBCC, serves as the fiduciary agent for this grant as it has for the previously awarded Komen grants. The focus of the project will be on two main goals which are to create a supportive environment for women at post-diagnosis stage on the breast cancer continuum and providing professional development opportunities and training of coalition members and providers to strengthen the safety net for at risk women.
Central to these goals are training for the RVBCC members, who are frontline healthcare workers from public and community-based healthcare organizations and education, access to care and improving quality of life for survivors and co-survivors which are the main strategies to keeping women on the continuum of care for life.
For more information about this grant effort and the RVBCC, call Hardy at 252-535-8771. To learn more about GBDF, visit www.gbdf.org or email gbdf@gbdf.org.
