History
Sheltering Arms Hospital was founded in 1889 as a charitable care hospital for the working poor in Richmond and across the Commonwealth of Virginia. For 92 years we relied solely on the generosity of the community through gifts of time, talent, and treasure to care for the sick, deliver babies, comfort the dying, perform surgeries, and overall care for some of the most vulnerable in our community without ever sending a bill.
In 1981, after extensive study of community need, Sheltering Arms shifted the way we fulfilled our mission of caring for the community by opening the first, free-standing physical rehabilitation hospital in the state. Despite now billing for services, the community continued to support Sheltering Arms and our patients, helping us to become one of the most innovative physical rehabilitation hospitals in the country, despite our small size and humble presence.
In 1992, Sheltering Arms Foundation was created to steward the amazing generosity of previous generations and to ensure Sheltering Arms could serve the community for generations to come.
May 2016 Sheltering Arms Hospital entered a joint venture agreement with VCU Health System to combine inpatient physical rehabilitation services of the two organizations into one, state-of-the-science, destination hospital with a goal of serving not just our community, but the entire Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
Sheltering Arms Foundation successfully exceeded a $50 million capital campaign to help build the hospital on a 47-acre campus while continuing to support outpatient clinical programs and our fitness, wellness, and recreation programs.
Simultaneously, Sheltering Arms Foundation provides grants to support nonprofit community partners who help us fulfill our vision and serve our patients through their continuum of rehabilitation and to fulfill the vision of our patients’ living their lives beyond limits.
Sheltering Arms Foundation continues to serve our community of patients, clients, and team members AND our supporters by matching donors’ desires and dreams of impact and legacy with the mission of Sheltering Arms.
Generosity, compassion and a commitment to excellence have kept us going for 125 years. Now more than ever, we are excited to launch the next 125 years with renewed zeal to push the boundaries of rehabilitative technology and life-changing innovations. We are dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for our staff of physicians, therapists and nurses, while conducting more groundbreaking research to achieve even greater success with the patients we serve.