Testimonials & Awards

testimonials

In the following testimonials from prisoners and volunteers, AVP adjective names are used. AVP uses adjective names to protect the privacy of both inside and outside participants. Click a name to open a testimonial.

prisoners: Cool Karter, Jovial Jim
volunteers: Leisurely Larry

2010 awards

June Adams Johnson (Jazzy June) was recognized as a Community Builder by the United Way of North Central MA for her AVP work in prison. June facilitates AVP weekend workshops and an ongoing AVP support group in the MCI Shirley Medium prison. She is a 25-year law practitioner and currently runs Common Ground Mediation. With her background in law, she has helped many nonprofits through pro-bono services. She is also trustee of the Groton Conservation Trust, and former Chair of the Endowment Board of First Parish Church of Groton.

Professor Jo-Ann Della Giustina from the Bridgewater State University Criminal Justice Program received the Honorary Volunteer of the Year Award in 2010, on June 16th at Old Colony Correctional Center. Professor Della Giustina was awarded this honor for her dedicated service and innovative ideas and new programming. This includes the 2009, 2010 debates, and the very successful Inside-Out Program which she started at Old Colony this year, not to mention her dedicated service to AVP.

2009 awards

Karing Kathy Rubenstein receives the Volunteer of the Year Award at Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater MA.

left to right: Supt. Steven O'Brien, Bruce Peres, Volunteer Coordinator, Kameelah Benjamin-Fuller, Dept. Supt. Mark Rivers, Amber Rogers, Wayne Assing, Donna Malloy, Kathy Rubenstein, Dept. Commissioner Lawrence, Director of Treatment, Jeanne Lahousse

Dick Nethercut was the recipient of the Volunteer of the Year Award at MCI Norfolk. Joan Russell, a friend of Dick and another AVP facilitator, received the award for Dick because he went missing on September 19, 2009, just a few days before he was to receive the award, and his body was later found where he had passed away while hiking.

At the memorial service for Dick Nethercut, the Director of Volunteer Services for the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC), Bill Milhomme, spoke about Dick's many years of volunteer service in Massachusetts prisons, and he announced that the annual DOC award for volunteer of the year for all of MA, is being renamed the "Richard Nethercut Volunteer of the Year Award," which is a wonderful tribute to Dick.