WINTER 2009 MESSENGER ISSUED
The Winter 2009 edition of The Messenger is available to read online. Read The Messenger.
LIVE UNITED - CHECK PROGRESS OF THE UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL INDIANA CAMPAIGN!
VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA CHEERS BRIGHTPOINT CEO MARK HOWELL
Volunteers of America staff and clients joined in a rally on October 28, 2009 to support Brightpoint President, Mark Howell, as he walks to benefit the United Way of Central Indiana. Howell is walking a 28 mile route, beginning in Carmel, Indiana and ending at the Brightpoint offices in Plainfield, making stops and greeting United Way agencies along the way. Volunteers of America of Indiana is a member agency of the United Way of Central Indiana and thanks Mark Howell and Brightpoint for this innovative and fun way of raising money and awareness for the United Way.
MONET ORR AWARDED ICA COUNSELOR OF THE YEAR
At it’s 76th Annual Fall Conference, the Indiana Correctional Association presented the 2009 Counselor the Year Award to Monet Orr, Case Manager at Theodora House! Monet joined Volunteers of America in 2004 as a Residential Counselor and was promoted to Case Manager in 2005. Monet is a highly valued and dedicated member of the Theodora House team. Her commitment to her clients is evidenced daily in the way she carries out the duties of her job.
Congratulations Monet!
CHECKPOINTS AND CHALLENGES -LAUNCH PARTY HELD AT WFYI
Volunteers of America of Indiana is announcing a new board game it helped create that provides insights into the challenges former inmates face upon reentry. The project was developed with WFYI Public Broadcasting and John P. Craine House, an alternative sentencing program for nonviolent women. "Checkpoints and Challenges" provides role-playing situations that newly free inmates face. It's designed for use by re-entry programs, correctional systems, congregations with prison ministries and secondary and higher educational programs. PEN Products, a division of the Indiana Department of Correction, produced the game using offender labor at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. A launch party to introduce the game was held on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 from 4-6 p.m. in the WYFI Community Room.
Learn more about Checkpoints and Challenges and how you can purchase the game!
THANK YOU FEDEX CARES!!
Nearly 200 FedEx employees volunteered on Monday, September 21, 2009 in support of Volunteers of America of Indiana. FedEx staff members were participating in FedEx Cares Week, a week of service bringing thousands of FedEx volunteers from around the world and across the FedEx companies together, to support the communities where team members and customers live and work. Read the Indianapolis Star article published September 21, 2009.
SUMMER/FALL 2009 MESSENGER ISSUED
The Summer/Fall 2009 edition of The Messenger is available to read online. Read The Messenger.
VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA OF INDIANA RECEIVES GRANT FUNDS TO DELIVER HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION AND RAPID RE-HOUSING SERVICES
Volunteers of America of Indiana, Inc. is one of twenty Indianapolis agencies that was selected to administer $5.8 million through the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program under Title XII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds will help an estimated 2,044 households in the Indianapolis area, according to the United Way of Central Indiana.
“These grantees will help give more of our neighbors one of the most basic human needs: a safe place to call home,” said Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. “We are excited to be able to award these funds to such deserving institutions who will work to provide a better quality of life for our neighbors in need.”
For individual and families who are at risk of becoming homeless, the funds will help pay short and medium-term assistance, security and utility deposits, utility payments, moving cost assistance and motel/hotel vouchers.
For those already homeless, the funds will be used to help arrange, coordinate, monitor and deliver housing-related services. That can include outreach and engagement, legal services, developing individualized housing plans, housing search and placement, and credit repair.
Unlike many direct assistance programs, this program can provide up to 18 months of support for participants, but requires that they be recertified every three months to show progress toward housing stability.
5 -YEAR ANNIVERSARY OPEN HOUSE FOR THEODORA HOUSE HELD AUGUST 27, 2009
Volunteers of America of Indiana hosted an Open House on August 27, 2009 to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Theodora House, its womens residential reentry center. Congressman Andre´ Carson, of the 7th Indiana Congressional District was the featured speaker, joined by the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, Edwin Buss and Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis, Olgen Williams. The facility's multi-purpose room served as the venue for nearly one hundred colleagues, friends and neighbors to gather to mark this milestone.
A leading provider of gender-responsive reentry services, Volunteers of America of Indiana has championed the establishment of strategies that address the unique needs of women and their children upon release. The award-winning Healing Families program, located within Theodora House, provides targeted interventions to families separated by incarceration, providing assessment, individual, group and family counseling and trauma treatment.