Volunteers of America of Indiana Awarded 2nd Chance Act Grant

INDIANAPOLIS (September 25, 2014) – Volunteers of America of Indiana, Inc. has been awarded a $1,000,000 grant through the Department of Justice to implement a Comprehensive Community-Based Adult Reentry Program Utilizing Mentors. This award, part of the Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199), helps to address the significant challenges facing returning citizens by providing comprehensive responses to the significant number of incarcerated adults who are returning to communities from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities. Programs funded under the Second Chance Act help to promote public safety by ensuring that the transition individuals make from prison and jail to the community is successful.

Volunteers of America of Indiana will use the 2014 Second Chance Act Comprehensive Community-Based Adult Reentry Program Utilizing Mentors funds to support a Fatherhood/Motherhood Mentoring Program. The mentoring program will serve 250 adults being released from prison and jail, while using a research-based mentoring program designed to meet the needs of incarcerated mothers and fathers in the community, namely the city of Indianapolis (Marion County) and the nearby counties of Boone, Hancock, Hendricks, Hamilton and Morgan.

Three hundred (300) adult volunteer mentors will be recruited and trained for this specific population. “Volunteers of America has been a leader in providing innovative and effective services to the prison re-entry population since the early 1900's,” said Will Raihl, President/CEO of Volunteers of America of Indiana. “This grant will allow Volunteers of America to continue the support and help we provide to this at-risk population.”

In May, Congressman André Carson wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging support for the grant and asking that Volunteers of America of Indiana receive the requested funding. “By securing one million dollars in federal funding, our state can better equip parents with the skills they need to be effective parents,” said Carson. “Everyone wins when families are able to succeed together.”

The Department of Justice awarded grants in several categories; however, Volunteers of America of Indiana is the only recipient in the state to receive an award in the ‘Comprehensive Community-Based Adult Reentry Program Utilizing Mentors’ category.