For Immediate Release:
June 9, 2008
David Burch, Volunteers of America
Greg Bouris, Major League Baseball Players Association
(212) 826-0808 or gbouris@mlbpa.org
Major League Baseball Players Trust Presents 10 Volunteers of America Programs Nationwide With a Total of $100,000 in Grants
NEW ORLEANS – The Major League Baseball Players Trust today presented $100,000 in grants to 10 Volunteers of America programs that further the organization’s mission to strengthen communities and build better lives for those in need. A total of $430,000 has been provided by the Players Trust to dozens of Volunteers of America programs since the first grants were given 2003.
Charles Gould, national president and chief executive officer of Volunteers of America, said, “It’s wonderful to see the many accomplishments that Volunteers of America and the Major League Baseball Players Trust have built together over the years. Thousands of people have benefited from the Trust’s generosity and we look forward to adding even more accomplishments in the future.”
Each winning program this year received a $10,000 grant, which were presented by the Major League Players Trust on June 9 at Volunteers of America’s National Conference in New Orleans. The 10 programs serve thousands of people in all regions of the United States:
- Eastern Avenue Apartments, Seat Pleasant, Md.: The Eastern Avenue Apartments grant will be used to purchase security cameras and provide a safer housing community. The facility, located less than 10 miles from the nation’s capital, provides housing for 211 people including 103 youth and children.
- Volunteers of America of Greater Sacramento and Northern Nevada, Sacramento, Ca.: The grant will be used to purchase furniture for youth who age out of foster care without a permanent family. Youth in a supported transitional living program will have help furnishing their first independent homes as they graduate from the program and enter adulthood.
- Volunteers of America of Florida, Art Arbor Project: The grant will provide parent training to disabled parents and their children to improve the health and safety of their children. The goal of the Arbor Art Project is to improve parents’ communication skills, behavior management skills and problem solving skills. These parents suffer from severe and persistent mental illness, struggle with substance abuse or experience both. These disabilities place them outside the mainstream parent training opportunities.
- Volunteers of America of Indiana, Brandon Hall Fatherhood Initiative, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Brandon Hall Fatherhood Initiative will use grant funds to provide a visitation center in a local church facility for children to visit with their fathers from whom they are separated due to incarceration. The funds will be used not only for furnishing the center, but also to purchase tickets for social and recreational opportunities and develop a resource library. In 2007, 186 people participated in the Fatherhood Initiative.
- Volunteers of America of Massachusetts, Rebound Adolescent and Family Treatment Center and the Casa Isla Assessment and Stabilization Center, Boston, Mass.: Funds will be used to purchase fitness equipment for high-risk youth at the two facilities. Four hundred fifty adolescents annually will benefit from the new fitness equipment.
- Volunteers of America of Michigan, Community Kitchen program, Lancing, Mich.: Grant funds will be used to purchase new kitchen equipment to more efficiently feed the homeless individuals in its shelters, and other low-income individuals through its Community Kitchen program in Lansing. Last year more than 83,000 meals were served.
- Volunteers of America of Northern New England, Women Building Futures: With its grant, the Northern New England office will buy fully equipped tool belts and work boots for 22 female ex-offenders. These women are being trained in construction skills for re-entering the workforce. Having their own tools will help them compete in the workplace and immediately engage in a job search upon release. The women going through this program have a better than 80 percent chance for a successful transition into the community.
- Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, All of Us Care, Pittsburgh, Pa.: All of Us Care, which serves at-risk youth, will use the grant to expand its computer lab. The program provides a variety of out-of-school activities and services to youth 5-21 years-old. Many of the youth participants don’t have access to home computers. This grant will purchase additional computers and work spaces for the program.
- Volunteers of America of Western Nebraska, Chappell Childcare Center, Chappell, Neb.: The Chappell Childcare Center opened in 1993 in the basement of a local nursing home in a rural area of Nebraska. It serves 25 children between the ages of nine weeks and nine years and is in need of renovations. The grant will go towards new carpeting, wiring, light fixtures, as well as replacing some of the worn play centers and toys.
- Volunteers of America of Wyoming and Montana, Residential Wellness Program: Wyoming and Montana has five residential facilities that serve more than 1,300 people. The grant will be used to purchase new fitness equipment. These facilities serve a variety of people, but all will benefit from the new Residential Wellness Program focusing on healthy lifestyles.
Volunteers of America has partnered with the Major League Baseball Players Trust since 2002. The centerpiece of this relationship is the Action Team program, which encourages 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, work together in cities nationwide to encourage young people to get involved in their communities by volunteering.
In New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, ballplayers have volunteered their time and the Players Trust has made generous donations, including a $1 million gift to Volunteers of America’s rental housing development fund and $80,000 to both the Lighthouse afterschool program in New Orleans and the mobile medical clinic in Mississippi and Alabama.
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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 www.VolunteersofAmerica.org.