Dan Lombardo, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Alexis Degan, Vice President of Development of Volunteers of America Delaware Valley discussed their ongoing mission and programming.   VOADV serves more than 13,000 individuals throughout the southern New Jersey and Philadelphia region and operates more than 40 assistance programs – from homelessness, reentry, veterans assistance, and affordable housing services to specialized programs for individuals living with substance use disorder, traumatic brain injury and/or intellectual disabilities. VOADV’s mission, which governs all service and assistance provided to clients in need, is to provide community-based assistance to individuals in need so that they can lead self-fulfilled, independent lives.  They are more than crisis relief, donations allow them to provide the follow-up services to help families and individuals continue their path to independence.

We talked about need, he estimates that requests have grown over 65% from last year, housing and employment driving the surge.

Dan discussed their family shelters, 2 men’s shelters, one medical respite shelter and one veterans’ shelter.  They also have 2 men and 1 women’s halfway house and other Reentry programs making the transition back to the community more seamless for individuals coming back from prison.

He spoke of their new launches, a tri-county IMPACT office which helps clients navigate through social services will be opening at the end of November in Vineland and they are preparing to launch a mobile legal clinic.

We discussed their current campaign, Adopt A Family.  Alexis asks individuals, families and businesses to step to help families in need through the holiday season.  While she’s always looking for donations of underwear and socks and toiletries, at this time of year they look to provide families with wish-list items, from warm clothes to toys and sports gear.  A record number of families have asked for assistance this year.  You can adopt an entire family or go through their wish list at Amazon.com and let VOADV direct the gift. 

Learn more, from volunteering opportunities to Adopt-A-Family at VOADV.org. 

Beasley Media Group’s 95.7 BEN FM will host a Radiothon to benefit VOADV on december 6th.  Get details at 957BENFM.com