VIP Mentors: Making a difference since 1972
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Mentors make a difference in young people's lives.
You can make a difference, too.
VIP Mentors (VIP) is the only program in California that recruits attorneys, and only attorneys, to be guides, advisors, friends and role models for parolees as they struggle to turn their lives around.
Since its founding in 1972, VIP volunteer mentors have helped thousands of men and women begin new lives that are self-respecting, self-supporting, and crime-free.
VIP MENTORS NEEDS YOU TO WRITE A LETTER TODAY TO HELP KEEP OUR PROGRAMS FUNDED BY THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHIBILITATION
To help you, below is text you can copy, paste, and adapt for your own letter. Please, take the time to personalize it with your own experiences and considerations. It's important to send VIP Mentors a copy of your letter (the address is at the bottom of the letter). THANK YOU! Your Name Matthew Cate, Secretary Re: VIP Mentors – State Funding Contracts, Regions 1 & 3 Dear Secretary Cate: For over 35 years, VIP Mentors (“VIP,” formerly known as Volunteers In Parole) has been serving the State of California by matching attorney (mentors) with parolee and youth offender (mentees). Apart from the benefits VIP provides to parolees, VIP offers a broader public service to the citizens of California by enhancing public safety and providing significant cost savings to the taxpayer. Due to the current state budgetary crisis, VIP is at risk of closing its operations in Regions 1 and 3 which serves Sacramento, Bakersfield, Fresno, Pasadena, Long Beach, and the Male and Female Restitution Center of Los Angeles. If this is allowed to happen, not only will the California parolee population lose out, but so to will the citizens of our state. We cannot allow this to happen. VIP serves a valuable public safety function through its long-standing track record of diminishing the rate of recidivism for those parolees who participate in the program. Historically, 75% of parolees participating in VIP do not repeat offend while engaged in the program. This statistic translates into safer communities in the form of protecting lives and property. There is also a substantial financial benefit to the California taxpayer in ensuring that VIP’s viability; namely, diminished costs to the justice system associated with trying repeat offenders and diminished costs to house such offenders. Stopping or slowing the “revolving door” syndrome of repeat offense is at the core of VIP’s mission. The state must recognize that continued support of VIP is in the interests of community at large. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” With this wisdom in mind, it makes sense both from a public safety and fiscal responsibility point of view to push for immediate approval of funding for VIP Regions 1 and 3. To allow these regions to go unfunded any longer means the inevitable closing of these programs which can only translate into diminished public safety and higher costs. Allowing these programs to close will not ultimately save the state financial resources but will result in higher costs and diminished public safety going forward. In light of the valuable service VIP has provided for over 35 years, I ask that you please do whatever is in your power to help approve immediate contract funding for VIP Regions 1 and 3. Time is of the essence. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this matter and anticipated support. <Signature>cc:
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