Grant Request Podium RVA
Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form
Organization Name: Podium RVA
Legal Name (if Different): The Podium Foundation
Also Known As: Podium
Mailing Address: 200 S 3rd St
City: Richmond
State: VA
Postal Code: 23219
Main Phone: 804-614-5030
Main Fax: n/a
Organization Website: www.podiumrva.org
Employer ID Number: 26-1877724
Organization Tax Status: 501c3
Proposal Information
Today’s Date: 3/17/2026
Requested Amount: $6,000.00
Project Title: Teen Writing Mentorship Project
Project Description:
Podium provides free after-school and summer youth writing workshops, publications, and teen professional development programs across under-resourced communities in Richmond, VA. Programs meet weekly for throughout the year in three-month sessions. Alongside their Podium mentors, youth learn to use writing as a tool for healing, self-expression, and in preparation for higher education and the workforce. Programs lessons help youth build their self-confidence and advocacy skills while exploring literary forms of poetry, prose, debate, journalism, theatrics, science fiction, and more.
This project supports Podium’s summer teen Writing Mentorship Project (WMP), where upperclassmen and recent high school graduates apply for a six-week intensive learning internship. In the Writing Mentorship Project, teen writers are not solely recipients of program services. They take the skills they have worked on with Podium throughout the school year and use them to help other young people find their inner writer and communicator. Summer peer mentorship programs are more than just a way to keep busy; they are powerful engines for personal and community growth. When teens transition from learner to creator and leader, the impact is profound.
WMP interns learn group facilitation and program quality skills before they develop a series of creative writing and communication workshops and program resources for middle school aged youth. Alongside Podium staff, WMP interns then facilitate their workshops in summer middle school programs. WMP interns engage weekly in the writing process by crafting reflection responses of the work they complete throughout their internship. Shared by Destiny, a former WMP intern, then Podium staff member, the “WMP [internship] allows us to come full circle. To take what we know and pass it down to those coming up where we just were.”
Total Project Budget: $24,000
Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Committed: $6,000 from Partnership for the Future + $6,000 from Mayor’s Youth Academy; Potential: Dill Family Foundation: $6,000
Project Duration: June 2027 – August 2027
Geographical Area Served: Richmond, VA
Age Group To Be Served: teens, ages 15 – 19
Contact Information
Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
Contact First Name: Vicki
Contact Last Name: Yeroian
Contact Title: Executive Director
Contact Phone: 804-614-5030
Contact Email: vicki.yeroian@podiumrva.org