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Images from AFOI's 40 years of service (Photos courtesy AFOI)
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Photo courtesy AFOI
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Photo courtesy AFOI
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Photo courtesy AFOI
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Photo courtesy AFOI
Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI), a Virginia nonprofit organization providing services to families affected by incarceration, is celebrating 40 years of service.
More than 100 supporters of the organization are expected to attend the sold-out anniversary festivities Tuesday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jepson Alumni Center at the University of Richmond. Following a silent and live auction, awards ceremony and dinner, guest speakers former Secretary of Education Anne Holton and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney will deliver speeches on the organization’s impact.
“It’s going to be great to highlight how we started and where we came from and show the progression and the growth through the years,” AFOI Executive Director Fran Bolin says. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for us as an organization to really say thank you to the folks that have supported us, many since 1978.”
The organization was created as a volunteer transportation program to help Richmond families visit loved ones in state prison. Before, visitation was almost impossible for low-income families, according to an AFOI press release. Now, the AFOI transportation program travels to 26 state correctional facilities, they have created a video visitation program, as well as the Milk and Cookies Children’s program, which offers support to children whose parents are incarcerated.
Research shows that inmates who have consistent, supportive, positive relationships with family members will have a better chance at success once they come home, Bolin says.
“But there’s an important piece that we see every day and in the families that we work with, and that is, It helps them be successful during this whole time, it helps them heal.” Bolin says. “We’re guiding families usually through a kind of daunting system that’s unfamiliar to most of them.”
