The VCU Massey Cancer Center recently announced its collaboration with two Richmond area street artists whose colorful works will wrap two mobile health vans. The customized vehicles will soon bring cancer education, prevention, screening and care coordination directly to underserved communities in central and southern Virginia.

Vanessa B. Sheppard, Ph.D., associate director for Community Outreach Engagement and Health Disparities within Massey’s Office of Health Equity and Disparities Research is leading the initiative.

While cancer can impact anyone, Dr. Sheppard noted “certain groups face a greater risk of developing or dying from cancer due to social, environmental and economic disadvantages.”

Despite progress, cancer mortality rates among Black Virginians remain 14 percent higher than white people. Fifty-seven percent of Virginia’s Black population lives within Massey’s service area, which includes Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Portsmouth, Martinsville and Brunswick County.

“Part of our work to change this dynamic is to focus on cancer hotspots – localities with higher-than-average cancer incidence and mortality rates – within our catchment area,” Dr. Sheppard said. “The vans will help us better reach and serve those communities.”

Each of the artists created their individual works with a shared hope – a future without cancer– by depicting everyday people with movement and bright colors.

“As a native of Jackson Ward, movement from my neighborhood includes dance and motion,” Sir James Thornhill said of his creation, which uses dance in different styles. “They represent all of us. And the key is that they all – that WE all – embrace the power of information and get screened, and stay educated, and do what we all can and must do to help put cancer at bay.”

“I see this van as driving us toward a place where the story is about survivorship, not cancer,” said Philadelphia-born, Richmond-based graphic artist, Hamilton Glass. “It is about raising awareness, sharing information and, I hope, building trust.”

The “Massey on the Move” vans are funded through a $300,000 grant from The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation’s Social Justice Grants Initiative and will roll out in late spring.