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Tune In! Volunteers of America Chesapeake is on the radio!
Click Here to listen to the story on WAMU 88.5
April 19, 2010 - By Natalie Neumann
In Maryland, the proposed Montgomery County budget reduces funding for homeless outreach services. For one group that's more than 40 percent of its budget. That could mean the group will go under in the next fiscal year.
Four months ago Sidney McEachin was homeless and had been for more than a year. But since then his luck has changed.
"It's overwhelming. I'm still in a whirlwind," says McEachin.
He heard about a program that would help him out: Volunteers of America Chesapeake's homeless outreach program. They helped McEachin get food stamps, counseling for his depression and he says he was touched by a case worker's dedication to help him find a home.
"She took me to the interview for the housing on Christmas Eve. I said 'Wow, they must really, really care,'" he says.
McEachin says the county should keep funding the organization.
"I'm not saying we don't need smooth roads. But I'd rather have roads full of potholes than homeless people," he says.
But with the county facing a $761 million shortfall, many hard choices lie ahead before the budget is finalized in May.
Former client of Volunteers of America Chesapeake's Montgomery County Mental Health & Homeless Outreach Program Sidney McEachin (left) stands beside program director Victoria Karakcheyeva (right) at the program's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Courtesy of: Courtney Dunn, Volunteers of America Chesapeake
January 12, 2010 - Volunteers of America Chesapeake's Russ Snyder and Residential Program Center Former Client Mike Prioleau are guests on News Channel 8's "Let's Talk Live!"
Miss Virginia Junior Teen visits Hilda Barg Homeless Prevention Center to raise awareness of homelessness
Nationals Player Felipe Lopez Joins Volunteers of America and the Washington, DC Action Team to Share Their Love of Reading with Children in Arlington
Washington Nationals player Felipe Lopez teamed up on Wednesday, April 30 with high school students from the Washington, DC Action Team to share their love of reading with low-income students at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School.
The event – created and organized by the Washington, DC Action Team, a group of community-minded high school students working with the players to inspire and train the next generation of volunteers –included up to four free books to each child provided by Scholastic. The baseball players and the Action Team student leaders from Bishop O’Connell high school served as reading role models to the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students and encouraged them to make reading a part of their everyday lives, both at school and at home. The event is organized by Volunteers of America Chesapeake and the Washington, DC Action Team as part of an ongoing effort to highlight the increasing need for literacy programs in the Washington, DC metro area.
Administered by Volunteers of America and the Major League Baseball Players Trust, the Action Team program was created to encourage young people throughout the United States to volunteer in their communities. Action Teams, consisting of Major League baseball players and Team Captains from area high schools, are working together in cities nationwide to encourage young people to get involved in their communities by volunteering. To date, Action Teams of high school students and Major Leaguers across the country have inspired more than 12,000 high school students to help more than 55,000 people in need by volunteering in their communities. The Action Team program also includes a school-based curriculum developed by the Players Trust, in partnership with The Wall Street Journal’s Classroom Edition, that carries the message of volunteerism and teaches valuable community service skills to 700,000 high school students in more than 5,000 classrooms across the United States.
Are you interested in Action Team? Contact Juliet Sarau, jsarau@voaches.org for more information!
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS TRUST
The Major League Baseball Players Trust partnered with Volunteers of America in 2002 to promote the nurturing and well-being of America’s children and their families. The partnership features the personal involvement of Major League baseball players and their families with a variety of programs conducted by Volunteers of America throughout the United States. Also, together they administer the Action Team, a national youth volunteer program currently inspiring the next generation of volunteers in Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Mobile, New York City, Oakland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland (ME), San Francisco and Washington D.C. For more information about the Major League Baseball Players Trust, visit www.MLBPLAYERS.com.
VOLUNTEEERS OF AMERICA
Volunteers of America is a national, nonprofit, faith-based organization dedicated to helping those in need rebuild their lives and reach their full potential. Through thousands of human service programs, including housing and healthcare, Volunteers of America helps more than 2 million people in over 400 communities. Since 1896, our ministry of service has supported and empowered America's most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, the frail elderly, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions. Our work touches the mind, body, heart-and ultimately the spirit-of those we serve, integrating our deep compassion with highly effective programs and services. For more information about Volunteers of America, visit http://www.volunteersofamerica.org/.
