Creating Community With Volunteers
Even with the persistence of Covid‑19 and modified operations within Nebraska prisons, the community continued to show up for RISE’s participants and staff in impactful ways this year. 152 volunteers, 97 of whom were new, supported RISE program participants both in prison and in the community by participating in 11 events in 2022.[1]
Thank you to our volunteers for demonstrating patience while waiting to gain clearance from NDCS to attend in‑person business coaching days and business pitch competitions inside facilities. Thank you to everyone that volunteered virtually by providing our participants much‑needed feedback on resumes, personal statements and business plans via our online portal from their own homes all over the United States for our modified coaching events.[2]
We also had volunteers show up to serve as judges, mentors, speakers, and audience members for the RISE Business Academy and the Youth and Family Program taking place in the community. All of these examples provide hope and humanization for an often‑overlooked and underserved population. If you are interested in helping justice‑involved people live their dream of small business creation, please consider joining our RISE Business Academy Advisory Council.[3]
We had several unique opportunities in 2022 to educate and engage other non‑profit and for‑profit organizations by hosting employee events and lunch‑and‑learn speaking engagements that resulted in volunteering and financial support. We plan to do these events on a regular basis in the future. Please reach out if we can share our mission, work and volunteer opportunities with your organization. We’d love to get you and your company plugged in.
As 2023 gets underway, RISE will continue to invite the community to help build empathy and opportunity for system‑impacted individuals and their families. The time, talents and resources that volunteers share with RISE are so very valuable to our RISE family and crucial to helping everyone break the cycles of incarceration. There is much work to be done!
