Village News ~ Spring 2004

Community-Based Organizations Profit from St. Vincent's Program
By Michael Risucci

The Village Training Institute (VTI) of Father Joe's Villages continues to expand its services throughout California. In July the VTI team completed a second trip of the year to Fresno and conducted a workshop on measuring program outcomes at the United Way of Fresno County. Other 2004 workshops in Los Angeles, Indio, San Bernardino, and Moreno Valley have lead to an increase in the number of organizations served to over 500. A workshop in the San Francisco Bay area is planned later this year.

As a result of the expanded outreach and number of organizations reached, VTI has received a higher number of applications for its sub-award grants and this year plans to give out more than $325,000. During its spring 2004 cycle, VTI awarded $75,277 to three organizations.

MuszEd Prep, a comprehensive and highly focused music education program that is offered free of charge to South Central Los Angeles’ at-risk-youth between the ages of 8 and 16, was awarded $33,688.

Match-Two, Inc., a community based organization that reaches into the faith-based community to recruit, train, and monitor volunteer mentors to serve the incarcerated, was awarded $23,370.

Working Against Cancer, an organization whose focus is on adolescent and young adult cancer victims, was awarded $18,219 to help build the capacity of its mentoring program.

Village Training Institute’s mentoring program has continued to be a shining star burning bright for the program and the community. In 2004, 33 employees of Father Joe’s Villages have dedicated their time and talents to help members of faith-based and community-based organizations who are in need of technical assistance.

The professional staff of Father Joe’s Villages logged over 3,000 mentoring hours in 2003 and is on pace to match that number in 2004. One of VTI’s many participants, Sophia Pirelli of Calcinto Ranch in San Jacinto, recently talked to VTI about her mentoring experience with Carl Rustin, director of special events for Father Joe’s Villages.

“The biggest impact on us was Carl’s encouragement and enthusiasm. We walked away from our meeting with Carl thinking we could do it,” says Pirelli. “We feel like we can pick up the phone, call and get the insight and answers we need to be successful. The VTI mentoring program has been a great tool for us.”

For information about the Village Training Institute, log on its Web site: www.villagetraininginstitute.org.