Featured Program: Hope Hall
Turning lives around is the theme of Volunteers of America of Delaware Valley. Hope Hall, located in Camden, New Jersey, houses 175 male offenders preparing for parole. This program is designed to bring out the best in ex-offenders and prepare them to successfully re-enter society. Unlike other halfway houses where residents go back and forth to work or school full-time after just a short adjustment period, the men who live at Hope Hall are eased into re-entry. Once the funding source of referral agency refers offenders to the program, the men go through an extensive needs and risk assessment and substance abuse screening. They are then referred for treatment and recommended for services in which life and employment skills are emphasized. Complimentary classes — from decision making to anger management — are a part of the Volunteers of America skills building arsenal. Work release doesn’t happen until 90 days into the process. By the time work release is instituted, the men are well prepared to meet the challenges they will confront in daily community life.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Volunteers of America of Delaware Valley Dan Lombardo knows that a one-size program doesn’t fit all. Over the past 20 years, he has observed the revolving prison door where within two or three years of release from prison, 65 to 85 percent of all offenders go back to prison. He has restructured the programs operated by Volunteers of America for the purpose of assessing an individual’s needs and risks.
"Not everybody makes it," said a veteran staffer at Hope Hall. "But I get to see people who are condemned by society and watch them turn it around."