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OUR MISSION
Transitioning Offenders Program's (TOP) mission is to advocate for, to educate, and reintegrate recently incarcerated offenders back into their communities for reconciliation and rehabilitation.
OUR MOTTO
Know yourself and seek self-improvement. (From the first leadership principle of the U.S. Army leadership manual).
VOLUNTEERS
On the Inside
There are over 140 TOP volunteers within the prison setting.
Our volunteers provide peer-to-peer interviews to assist with forms and answer questions.
Volunteers speak to classes of inmates to explain the TOP program and hand out our questionnaire and Pre-Release packets.
Our volunteers have logged more than 20,000 hours interviewing, speaking, assisting, and typing plans for fellow inmates.
A TOP worker explains the program to volunteers.
TOP volunteers putting together packets of resources for releasing inmates.
On the Outside
Tasks or activities performed by "outside volunteers" include:
Performing updates of the TOP database.
It is crucial that the information TOP gives to a releasing offender be current. If we give him the name and address of a felon-friendly apartment complex, for example, and he goes out and finds this apartment no longer rents to felons, the resource was useless. Our community volunteers check on the internet and/or get in touch with the apartments, food banks, medical clinics, etc. in our database, and make sure their information is up to date.
TOP workers do not have access to the internet to do this updating themselves; therefore, our community volunteers are absolutely vital to our program.
Supervise inmate volunteers building information packet (see photo at right).
Serve on the Board of Directors and help guide our program.
Financial help. Like any organization, TOP needs financial support to operate. Every day, TOP prints reports, questionnaires, applicant packets, etc. To do this, TOP must have paper, copier toner, pens, papers, and all the other materials and supplies that an office needs to function.
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