The 100+ Women Who Care NRV recently voted to make their collective donation to Inmate Family Assistance of the NRV and presented a check for $10,600 to this newly established not-for-profit.
Inmate Family Assistance of the NRV is a volunteer organization created to help ease the burden on the families of inmates at the Montgomery County Jail. Inmates may use funds for telephone calls, postage, stationery, hygiene items, and extra food.
Deanna Cox, a Women Who Care member and Director of NRV’s Inmate Family Assistance, talked to the club on the needs of families who have a loved one incarcerated and are struggling financially. She described how important it is for both the inmate and the family to maintain contact during incarceration and how expensive it can be.
The innate family assistance nonprofit contributes $40 per month to eligible inmates’ accounts on behalf of their family. In q statements of thanks, one inmate said, “I’ve been able to communicate twice with the [social services] caseworker by phone to hear how my daughter is doing.” Another inmate described how he used the funds to purchase hygiene items and food and added, “I was able to call my daughter and my grandson and that meant the world to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The gift from the 100+ WWC NRV will ensure IFA of the NRV is able to continue to assist the families of inmates at the Montgomery County Jail for another year and also provides the potential for expanding the program to other correctional facilities in the New River Valley.
The 100+ Women Who Care NRV meets quarterly on the third Tuesday of January, April, July and October via Zoom due to the pandemic. All interested women are invited to join the group to support local not-for-profits that make the New River Valley a better place to live.
The group’s membership area includes the counties of Montgomery, Giles, Pulaski, and Floyd and the City of Radford. For more information, visit www.100womenwhocarenrv.com or email nrv100wwc@gmail.com. Their next meeting will be Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 6:15pm.
