Riverstone Community Services Programs

Essential Needs Assistance Program (ENAP)
Through this program, we provide direct payments to utility providers on behalf of individuals and families at risk of service termination. We also offer food, clothing, household items, and other essential goods. Additionally, we fund direct payments to mental health care providers for those who are uninsured or underinsured.

Kids Thrive Community Drive (KTCD)
This program is a partnership between Riverstone and school districts across West Virginia. Districts identify the two schools with the highest need, and by working closely with each school’s Community In Schools Site Coordinator, we deliver support in the form of whatever is most needed at the time. This may include food, clothing, hygiene items, school supplies, attendance prizes, and holiday meal kits.

Bed for Every Head (BFEHD)
This program was born from unmet need. When an existing national nonprofit’s local chapter was on the verge of closure, our Chairman and CEO explored taking over the effort. However, the size of the coverage area would have stretched WVSHI and RCS beyond their capacity. A more localized attempt to establish a chapter failed due to lack of community support. When this news reached our Board of Directors, our Vice Chair posed a simple question: “What’s stopping us from launching something like this ourselves?” The Bed for Every Head program was born.
We provide children with full bed kits that include a bed frame, mattress (or mattress with box spring where needed), pillow, and at least one full bedding set. Bassinets and cribs are available for infants, and the program is open to all children, babies through high school seniors. While initially focused on Upshur County, we expand offerings as funding permits, prioritizing areas not served by other similar organizations.
A proper night’s sleep supports emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being. No child should have to sleep on a couch or floor, and through this program, we’re ensuring fewer do.

Operation COMPASS (In Development)
A future initiative under Riverstone’s umbrella, Operation COMPASS, Collaborative Outreach for Mobile Partnership, Access, Safety, and Support, will unite law enforcement and mental health professionals to improve responses to crises in the field. This program is currently under development.

WVSHI Inc. Programs

Project Dignity
Our flagship remembrance initiative. Project Dignity aims to restore, memorialize, and protect every former West Virginia state hospital cemetery and burial ground. This includes installing permanent signage and memorial stones, ensuring secure fencing, acquiring VA-issued markers for eligible veterans, and returning dignity to the forgotten. Our first effort focuses on the Weston State Hospital cemeteries, where we are working to install three custom memorial stones and a roadside historical marker.

The Legacy Project
The core of WVSHI’s mission. This project began in 2021 as the “Legacy Package,” first created to help the great-granddaughter of Mary Wagner, a former patient at Weston State Hospital, uncover her family’s story. Since then, over 350 families have received these personalized presentations, which trace a loved one’s time in institutional care using original documents and research. In January 2024, the offering was officially renamed “The Legacy Project.” It remains one of our most sought-after programs.

Burkhammer Memorial Scholarship
This scholarship was established to honor Genevieve Burkhammer, a patient at Weston State Hospital whose daughter now serves on our Board. The Burkhammer Memorial Scholarship supports graduate counseling students and addresses one of the major barriers to completing mental health programs, cost. As funding expands, the scholarship will grow to include undergraduates in mental health fields. Our belief is simple: one student supported today becomes one more advocate for tomorrow.

The Forgotten Histories Project
This initiative covers all of our research, preservation, and advocacy efforts surrounding West Virginia’s former state hospitals. It includes public education, historical documentation, restoration of institutional records, and the eventual push to reform restrictive record access laws for descendants.
Our stance is simple: preservation is not performance. Not telling these stories only shields the systems that failed so many. This project ensures those systems are no longer protected by silence.