The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) is excited to announce two upcoming Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to help promote its mission of empowering youth to make healthy choices.

Tobacco Use Prevention Grants

VFHY will offer a total of $8,280,000 in funding over three years to prevent and reduce youth tobacco, nicotine, and vaping product use across Virginia. This new round of grants will continue funding classroom-based tobacco, nicotine, and vaping prevention instruction, but will also include a new option for Community Innovation funding emphasizing health equity initiatives.

VFHY recognizes that tobacco and nicotine use is higher among, or has a greater impact on, some groups of children and youth than others. We are committed to reducing these disparities as a critical component of our mission to prevent and reduce youth tobacco and nicotine product use across the Commonwealth of Virginia. The new Community Innovation fund will allow grantees to engage community partners to focus on policy, systems, and environmental changes to address these disparities.

The full Tobacco Prevention Grants RFP will be released on January 7, 2021. VFHY encourages you to learn more about this funding opportunity by visiting the VFHY website and to fill out the interest form so that VFHY staff can answer any questions you might have ahead of the launch in January.

Research Grants

VFHY will offer $1,800,000 in funding over three years to continue a statewide program of research on causes and prevention of youth tobacco use. We fund collaborative projects that include university and community partnerships as well as multiple disciplines to utilize expertise and resources efficiently. Throughout our history, VFHY funding has been used as base for pilot projects and data to obtain additional outside funding for youth tobacco research in Virginia. We know the value of collaboration and research-sharing in the scientific community and require our grantees to participate in the Virginia Youth Tobacco Projects Coalition. We have great interest in generating new investigators’ interest in tobacco prevention research and encourage them to contact us to connect to seasoned researchers.

Currently VFHY funds six research projects across Virginia. Project descriptions can be found on VFHY’s website.

The full Research Grants RFP will be released on November 12, 2020. VFHY encourages you to send any questions you have to our Regional Grants Administrator Lisa Brown at lbrown@vfhy.org.

About the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY)

Established in 1999 by the Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth empowers Virginia’s youth to make healthy choices by reducing and preventing youth tobacco and nicotine use, substance use, and childhood obesity. ​VFHY receives no taxpayer funds and is funded solely by a small share of Virginia’s annual payments from the nation’s major tobacco manufacturers through the Master Settlement Agreement.

VFHY takes a comprehensive approach to prevention work that includes reaching about 50,000 children each year through classroom-based prevention programs in public schools, after-school programs, community centers, day cares and prevention programs across the state. VFHY’s award-winning marketing campaigns deliver prevention messaging to more than 500,000 children annually. In addition, VFHY’s research program provides scientific insight on methods to effectively reduce tobacco use. Since 2002, VFHY has funded 40 large research projects at universities throughout Virginia.