Volunteers of America (VOA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that provides affordable housing and other assistance services primarily to low-income people throughout the United States. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization includes 32 affiliates and serves approximately 1.5 million people each year in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.[3]
In addition to those in need of affordable housing, VOA assists veterans, low-income seniors, children and families, the homeless, those with intellectual disabilities, those recovering from addiction, and the formerly incarcerated.[3]
History
A man dressed as Santa Claus (center) fundraising for Volunteers of America on the sidewalk of street in Chicago, Illinois, in 1902. He is wearing a mask with a beard attached.
The Booths first moved to New York in the 1890s to assume command of The Salvation Army forces in the United States. The couple was successful in bolstering the image of The Salvation Army in America and in growing the movement's social work mission. After disagreements with other Salvation Army leaders, including Ballington Booth's brother Bramwell Booth, the Booths left the organization and established Volunteers of America.[5]
In the early 1900s, the organization began an expansive philanthropic program that included employment bureaus, co-operative stores, medical dispensaries, distribution of clothes, women's sewing classes, Thanksgiving meals, reading rooms, fresh air camps and other establishments.[6] During the advent of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Volunteers of America mobilized to assist the millions of people who were unemployed, hungry and homeless. Relief efforts included employment bureaus, wood yards, soup kitchens and "Penny Pantries" where every food item cost one cent.[7]
By the 1960s, Volunteers of America was well known for its thrift stores and annual fundraising efforts like the Sidewalk Santa campaign in New York City. In an effort to modernize its programs, the organization began to focus its work in the area of housing for the poor following the establishment of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.[8]
Volunteers of America is ranked among the largest charities in the United States by The NonProfit Times,[9]The Chronicle of Philanthropy[10] and Forbes among other publications, with annual revenue of more than $1 billion in 2015. The organization is one of the largest nonprofit providers of affordable housing for the elderly, low-income families and people with intellectual or physical disabilities in the United States.[11]
Origin of the name 'Volunteers of America'
The first volunteer firehouse was started in 1736. And in the 1800s, volunteer work for social reform, including women's rights, child labor, and the abolition of slavery, culminated in the creation of institutions and social services to improve the lives of others.[12]
When Volunteers of America was founded in 1896, volunteerism in the modern sense of the word did not exist. To "volunteer" at that time meant serving others as a full-time vocation. Early members of the organization came to call themselves the "Volunteers of America" to differentiate themselves from The Salvation Army as an organization by Americans, for Americans.[13]
In fact, Volunteers of America is staffed primarily by paid staff, rather than unpaid volunteers. More than 16,000 paid professionals serve as administrators, caregivers, skilled nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, housing experts, architects, and a number of other positions at the organization.[14]
Housing
As of 2017 the organization owned and/or managed around 19,000 affordable housing units that provide homes to nearly 25,000 people each year.[15]
In 2009 Affordable Housing Finance magazine ranked Volunteers of America as the top nonprofit in its "Top 50 Affordable Housing Owners,"[16] and also ranked the organization in the "Top 50 Affordable Housing Developers" in 2007[17] and "Top 10 Companies Completing Acquisitions."[18] The magazine also selected a Volunteers of America multifamily community, Lord Tennyson outside San Francisco, as the "best of the best" affordable housing project in the country for 2007.[19]
VoA also reaches out to homeless people in many cities through street outreach and mobile outreach services.[20]
Children, youth and families
In 2017, Volunteers of America donated a backpack to every student living in New York City shelters, resulting in the donation of over 140,000 backpacks over 14 years.[21]
1 2 "About Us". Volunteers of America. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
↑ "Volunteers of America/About Us/Our History". Retrieved 1 February 2013. On March 8, 1896, Ballington Booth, the tall, handsome son of the Salvation Army founders, and his wife, Maud Charlesworth Booth, the refined daughter of an Anglican rector, made a bold announcement. In the Great Hall of New York City's Cooper Union, they pronounced to a crowd of thousands the birth of a new organization dedicated to serving the spiritual and material needs of the poor and disadvantaged-Volunteers of America
↑ "Volunteers of America". The Social Welfare History Project. Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. 17 September 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
↑ The new encyclopedia of social reform, including all social-reform movements and activities, and the economic, industrial, and sociological facts and statistics of all countries and all social subjects; William Dwight Porter Bliss 1856-1926; Rudolph Michael Binder 1865-; eds. New York, Funk and Wagnalls Company 1908 p.1259
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organization headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organization reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, consisting of soldiers, officers, and adherents who are collectively known as Salvationists. Its founders sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting both their "physical and spiritual needs". It is present in 133 countries, running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless, and disaster relief and humanitarian aid to developing countries.
William Booth was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first General (1878–1912). The Christian movement with a quasi-military structure and government founded in 1865 has spread from London to many parts of the world. It is known for being one of the largest distributors of humanitarian aid.
Catherine Booth was co-founder of The Salvation Army, along with her husband William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Mother of The Salvation Army'.
In the United States, the number of homeless people on a given night in January 2023 was more than 650,000 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homelessness has increased in recent years, in large part due to an increasingly severe housing shortage and rising home prices in the United States.
A free clinic or walk in clinic is a health care facility in the United States offering services to economically disadvantaged individuals for free or at a nominal cost. The need for such a clinic arises in societies where there is no universal healthcare, and therefore a social safety net has arisen in its place. Core staff members may hold full-time paid positions, however, most of the staff a patient will encounter are volunteers drawn from the local medical community.
Evangeline Cory Booth, OF was a British evangelist and the 4th General of The Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. She was the first woman to hold the post.
Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth later changed her name to Maud Ballington Booth, was a Salvation Army leader and co-founder of the Volunteers of America.
Ballington Booth was a British-born American Christian minister who co-founded Volunteers of America, a Christian charitable organization, and became its first General (1896-1940). He was a former officer in The Salvation Army.
Booth is a surname of northern English and Scottish origin, but arguably of pre 7th century Norse-Viking origins. It is or rather was, topographical, and described a person who lived in a small barn or bothy. Derived from the word "both", the word was used to denote various kinds of shelter, but especially a herdsman's dwelling on a summer pasture. The surname is most popular in Northern England, where early Scandinavian influence was marked, and to some extent in Scotland.
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is a multi-service, community-based organization that serves people in need on the East Side of Manhattan and on Roosevelt Island. Founded in 1894 as a free kindergarten for the children of indigent immigrants and as one of the first settlement houses in the nation, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is the oldest and largest provider of social, legal and educational services on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Each year, they assist thousands of individuals and families who range in age from 3 to 103, represent dozens of races, ethnicities and countries of origin and "live, work, go to school or access services" on the East Side from 14th Street to 143rd Street and on Roosevelt Island. Their clients include indigent families and the working poor who live in the East Side's housing projects and tenements or who travel to the Upper East Side to work in low-wage jobs such as cashiers, housekeepers, nannies and laborers; 10,000 seniors; and hundreds of mentally ill homeless and formerly homeless adults. They have five locations between 54th and 102nd Streets, offer programs at dozens of East Side locations; their headquarters is located on East 70th Street.
The New York State Housing Finance Agency (HFA) is a New York State public-benefit corporation created in 1960 to build and preserve affordable multifamily rental housing throughout New York State. HFA sells bonds and uses the proceeds to make mortgages to affordable housing developers.
Emma Moss Booth-Tucker known as 'The Consul', was the fourth child and second daughter of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.
Breaking Ground, formerly Common Ground, is a nonprofit social services organization in New York City whose goal is to create high-quality permanent and transitional housing for the homeless. Its philosophy holds that supportive housing costs substantially less than homeless shelters — and many times less than jail cells or hospital rooms, and that people with psychiatric and other problems can better manage them once they are permanently housed and provided with services. Since its founding in 1990 by Rosanne Haggerty, the organization has created more than 5,000 units of housing for the homeless. "This is about creating a small town, rather than just a building," according to Haggerty. "It's about a real mixed society, working with many different people." Haggerty left the organization in 2011 to found Community Solutions, Inc. Brenda Rosen was promoted from Director, Housing Operations and Programs to Executive Director, and has led the organization since.
Rosie's Place is a sanctuary for poor and homeless women located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Commissioner Frederick St. George de Lautour Booth-Tucker, was a senior Salvation Army officer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the son-in-law of Willam and Catherine Booth, the Army's founders.
Picture the Homeless (PTH) is an American homeless person–led rights organization founded in 1999 by Lewis Haggins and Anthony Williams. It focuses on human rights, housing, police violence and other social justice issues. It was housed originally in Judson Memorial Church, which still hosts its Longest Night of the Year memorial event, and was located for a time in El Barrio and 2427 Morris Avenue in the Bronx. It is currently based at 104B E 126th Street in Manhattan.
Launch Housing is a secular Melbourne-based community organisation that delivers homelessness services and housing supports to disadvantaged Victorians.
In October 2023, an average of 90,578 people slept in New York City's homeless shelters each night. This included 23,103 single adults, 32,689 children, and 34,786 adults in families. The total number is at its highest ever, with 63,636 people sleeping in homeless shelters. The city reported that in 2019, 3,600 individuals experienced unsheltered homelessness, sleeping in public spaces such as streets and public transit rather than shelters. The homeless population has surged in New York City 18% in 2023 from 2022, despite efforts from Mayor Adams.
The Salvation Army Headquarters is a building at 120–130 14th Street in the Chelsea and Greenwich Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The building, owned by charitable organization the Salvation Army, is composed of a four-story auditorium named the Centennial Memorial Temple, a 12-story office building, and a 17-story dormitory named the Markle Evangeline. All three sections were designed in the Art Deco style by Ralph Thomas Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker and were constructed from 1928 to 1930 as the headquarters for the Salvation Army. The auditorium and office building are also New York City designated landmarks.
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