Volunteers and CVS Health Workforce Initiative Helps Reentry Program Fill Over 200 Essential Bags
35 volunteers braved the bitter cold recently to help us fill "Welcome Home" bags for our 2024 RISE program graduates and Justice Study participants coming home and returning to the community! RISE volunteers in Nebraska filled over 200 bags in less than two hours! This would have been a huge lift for us to take on as staff, so having the help from our volunteers was priceless. A million thank you's to everyone that helped!
RISE provides "Welcome Home" bags to all RISE alumni who return home. Valued at over $100, each bag includes personal care items like body wash, shampoo, laundry detergent and towels. We all know how expensive a trip for essentials like this can be - lifting this one financial burden means a lot to us and the people we serve.
Partnering with CVS Health Workforce Initiative, RISE was generously gifted $5,000 to purchase supplies for these essential bags. “By partnering with RISE, CVS Health Workforce Initiatives had the unique opportunity to foster positive change in the lives of justice involved individuals and through this collaboration we can help break the cycle of incarceration and create a path towards success and rehabilitation,” says Marques Hancock, Workforce Initiative Manager at CVS Health.
Erica Raetz, Director of Reentry Services, sees the importance of these basics every day. "Welcome Home bags allow our program participants a moment to breathe. They aren't focused on getting to the nearest store to buy basic needs, or how much those basics will cost them. It allows them to take in the first moments of deciding what they'll have for breakfast, how it feels to hug their family again, wear clothing they choose, and more."
The Justice Study also provides supply bags to their participants returning from county jails.
Case Manager Jon Consolver said, "We serve an entirely different population. Our participants are on-the-go more than often. A large portion are homeless and/or need to have all possessions near and dear. We wanted to have bags and supplies that can really help if needed. Every participant in the future will get one and any participant prior will have one available as well. Thank you so much for assisting and being part of our community."
To our RISE volunteers and CVS Health, we are forever grateful your support and partnerships in this work. You truly are the best of the best.
