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1422 Massachusetts Avenue SE, Washington DC 20003
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JOB OPENING - VSC Executive DirectorOur MissionVSC helps prisoners while they are incarcerated and newly released to create, maintain and strengthen family and community ties so they are better prepared for successful transition back into our community. What we do - what is our success story?The 'success story' at VSC is a simple listing of the requests we receive and our responses to them during any one day - any day. Requests to us come from inmates, ex-offenders, family members, the Jail staff and attorneys. And the VSC staff and volunteers respond: we connect an inmate by phone to his mother in California, we deliver a message from an attorney, we ask a neighbor to feed a dog or move a car, we give an ex-offender funds to get a birth certificate, we answer a family member's questions about the Jail's visitors dress code, we provide an inmate with information on job training programs, another on shelters, another on drug treatment following release. A daily listing of the 50 to 75 requests we handle - along with their outcomes - is our success story. Standing alone, the requests are simple, undramatic, even incidental. Together, however, they provide an overwhelming endorsement of our need and our effectiveness. Why We Do ItEach day, we see individuals behind the statistics - statistics of poverty, crime, homelessness, hunger, unemployment - and we help them. As each workday ends, we look back on the things we have done for people - small, uncomplicated answers to problems that inmates and ex-offenders face as they struggle to move forward. No day is ever the same. What is the same - and what keeps us coming back - is the overwhelming need we see on a daily basis, knowing that we have made a difference in small yet meaningful ways to the men and women who call on us for help. VSC staff members of 25 years or more What Others Say About Us
Our HistoryThe concept for Visitors' Services Center originated in the late 1960's when the staff at the Old DC Jail was swamped with requests from the men being held there. The Jail staff was being asked to help with family emergencies, attorney contacts, lost property, parole and probation plans--- and with understanding the legal system. Believing that an appropriate and effective way to deal with this situation was to involve the community, the staff encouraged the development of an organization of citizen volunteers. Visitors' Services Center began in 1969. It received early endorsement from the Department of Corrections.
United Way 8207/CFC 53470 |
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