Yellow Door Foundation
The Yellow Door Foundation is a non-profit helping families who come to Charlottesville seeking cancer or transplant treatment at UVA Children’s Hospital. Yellow Door provides free, long-term housing for the length of a child’s treatment at UVA.
Many families come to Charlottesville seeking life-saving treatments for their children, moving for weeks or months at a time. From finding a place to the cost of lodging, these families often struggle with basic housing needs. The goal of the Yellow Door Foundation is to provide housing to these families so they can focus on helping their children get well.
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The Yellow Door Foundation Story
Yellow Door was founded in 2017 by JoAnne McTague. JoAnne had gotten to know a young girl and her mother who were in Charlottesville for the girl’s outpatient treatment at UVA Children’s Hospital. At the same time, she and her husband were rehabbing houses. A friend urged her to look into how to provide housing for the families of patients at the Children’s Hospital. Eventually, JoAnne founded the Yellow Door Foundation. It is now part of the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital Housing Collaborative.
Because communal living can be dangerous for children with compromised immune systems, the Foundation provides single-family apartments. JoAnne chose the name Yellow Door because the color yellow is associated with things like happiness, positivity, optimism, and joy.
Volunteers in Charlottesville
Yellow Door is staffed by dedicated volunteers. In addition to the Board, more than 50 people help with fundraising events, supply drives, food delivery, and mentoring for families and patients.
Yellow Door also works with many community partners, including the Emergency Food Network, Wegman’s, and the Free Book Bus. The foundation also works with student groups to raise money, conduct supply drives, and more.
Housing For Families in Need
Yellow Door Foundation provides families with single-family apartments located a short distance from the UVA Medical Center. Apartments have one, two, or three bedrooms. They are fully furnished and equipped. Families staying in them also have access to a pool, fitness center, playground, and more.
These apartments are designed to meet the needs of children with compromised immune systems. Since 2018, Yellow Door has helped over 100 families and provided over 9,000 free room nights. Based on current lodging rates in Charlottesville, that equals more than $1.7 million in savings for these families.