Media Relations Office:
September 27, 2006
Staff, inmates chip in to help kids Volunteers repair fence, rebuild playground at facility
Staff and inmates from Arizona State Prison Complex Yuma volunteered at Child and Family Services of Yuma, Inc., working over a number of days to repair and rebuild the facility’s playground.
Seven ASPC-Yuma staff, including Warden Jerry Sternes, worked alongside 15 inmates, who donated their time to the community betterment project coordinated by Rose Sanders of the Arizona Department of Corrections Office of Victims Services.
Carrying on projects started two years ago by ASPC-Yuma Assistant Deputy Warden Shannon Lehr, the volunteers were eager to join the effort to help the children.
“We realize that inmates will go above and beyond for a project that involves children,” Ms. Sanders said. “We put out our ideas to the inmate population and received an overwhelming response.”
Child and Family Services houses 12 children at the group home and serves 70-80 others through outpatient services. Offering behavioral and cognitive programs to at-risk youth referred by Juvenile Probation Office, Child Protective Service and foster homes, the program works children to provide the personal and coping skills they need to succeed.
“We’re trying to teach them the benefit of being a good kid and what that can bring,” CFS Executive Director Teri Boothby said. “We try to get them stable and back into another home to be successful.”
Members of Cocopah Unit Wildland Fire Crew and their security staff comprised the core of the volunteer group. With help from seven others, they worked August 18 and 21 and September 1 to repair an existing fence and wall and to remove and replace playground equipment.
When the fire crew was called away to work a local wild fire, additional inmates came out to keep pace and the work was completed along with a mural painted by an inmate artist. The volunteers also helped assemble and move furniture at the facility.
Excess funds from inmate donations totaling $4,884 were also presented to CFS. Ms. Boothby said the funding was sorely needed.
“In a year when we lost a lot of different funding and donations are down, the prison has been our single largest contributor,” Ms. Boothby said. “They are pretty special to us. I think it is a great program.”
Other recent projects included a sock drive – which brought in 431 pairs of socks from ADC staff along with $3,125 in cash donations from inmates. A future project may involve remodeling the facility’s garage, including installing storage bins, racks and shelves to organize their storage area. For more information, visit www.cfsyuma.com or www.azcorrections.gov.
|
