ActiveAtlas Opportunity Score 94/100
Virginia Homegrown Health Heroes: Allied Health Degrees
Virginia Rural Health Transformation funding for 18 rural-serving community colleges to expand high-demand allied health programs through instructors, hub-and-spoke partnerships, a shared mobile training lab, equipment, technology upgrades, and rural recruitment.
Funding$4.4 million total; $50,000 to $2.5 million per award
DeadlineSeptember 14, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET
Last verifiedAugust 28, 2026
Broad Eligibility
The 18 VCCS institutions serving communities within the Rural Virginia Horseshoe are confirmed eligible. Applicants must hold active SAM.gov registration and a current UEI, serve qualifying rural Virginia communities, and currently offer or be positioned to expand one or more of the six eligible accredited healthcare programs. Funds expand existing accredited programs and may not launch new unaccredited programs.
Atlas Analysis
High-value rural workforce and technology opportunity because the RFA explicitly funds a shared mobile training lab, stand-alone clinical training equipment, synchronous hub-and-spoke distance-learning upgrades, and hospital-linked faculty models. The strongest Atlas-fit projects should connect technology and simulation investments to measurable enrollment growth, rural clinical workforce placement, hospital partnerships, and sustainable instructional capacity.
The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, in partnership with the Virginia Community College System, issued RFA-RHTP-2026-02 for Virginia Rural Health Transformation’s Homegrown Health Heroes: Allied Health Degrees sub-initiative. The RFA makes $4.4 million available, anticipates multiple awards from $50,000 to $2.5 million, and closes September 14, 2026 at 5:00 PM Eastern.
Funding is limited to the 18 VCCS institutions serving the Rural Virginia Horseshoe and is designed to expand existing accredited programs in behavioral health, dental hygiene, diagnostic medical sonography, nursing, physical therapist assistant, and radiologic technology. Eligible project components include hub-and-spoke instructional partnerships, dual-funded instructors with hospital partners, a shared $1.2 million mobile training lab, $2 million in stand-alone equipment, $350,000 in college technology upgrades for synchronous distance learning, and rural marketing and recruitment. No cost sharing or matching is required.
Source verificationOfficial program administrator · vfcce.orgAtlas last verified this record August 28, 2026. Always use the funder's current application materials, amendments and portal instructions as the controlling source.View source and application materials ↗
