Press Releases

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org August 11, 2022 Recently, the non-profit Community Knights handed out $24,000 in grants to local non-profits, schools, and other organizations through its Grant Initiative Fundraising Team or GIFT.  Community Knights is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created to address deep budget cuts that hit our public schools and non-profits with the 2008 recession. Their work began with supporting public schools and the non-profit community on the Virginia Peninsula experiencing funding shortages. Through regular local fundraising they have united individuals and organizations to work collaboratively to invest in our community. Their mission is to identify the needs of small local non-profit and public school…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org August 9, 2022 Newport News, VA Currently VOACC’s YouthBuild program, in cooperation with the city of Newport News, VA. and The Department of Labor helps young people acquire the skills they need to obtain a great job and keep it. YouthBuild participants earn money while they get valuable hands-on experience building quality houses. They gain work-based education including vocational and basic academic skills training that leads to industry-recognized credentials, employment placement, or apprenticeships, and prepare them for post-secondary education programs. The program lasts six months with follow-up supportive services for the period of one year. On August…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org August 9, 2022 Newport News, VA Volunteers of America Chesapeake & Carolinas is proud to announce that Candace Vanderwater has assumed an increased leadership role with the organization. She will be taking on the role of Executive Vice President, adding to her current title of Chief Operating Officer. “In the Executive Vice President & COO role, Candace will expand her areas of responsibilities to lead external affairs, ministry outreach, new business development and more business oversight.” Candace is a licensed marriage and family therapist and has been in the field of health and human services for almost…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org July 5, 2022 In response to the need for more comprehensive Medicaid services that address all aspects of health, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created HOP, the nation’s first comprehensive pilot program to test and evaluate the impact of providing nonmedical interventions related to food, housing, transportation, and toxic stress (specifically Intimate Partner Violence) to those insured under Medicaid who also have the greatest needs. Through our arm of Healthy Opportunities, we will be providing housing services to Medicaid beneficiaries at risk of homelessness in Bladen, Pender, and Columbus counties. Our staff will help…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org July 4, 2022 Jules Christian is a Pastor, Chaplain, Writer, and Counselor, providing spiritual care for over twenty-five years. After a supernatural encounter with the Lord, Jules accepted the call to ministry. She has a Master’s Degree in Theology and is ordained in the Non-Denominational Christian tradition. Jules served as Associate Pastor of Youth for nine years, at which time God opened the door to chaplaincy. Jules completed her first year of Clinical Pastoral Education in her home state of North Carolina and moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked and trained as a Psychiatric Chaplain. Jules…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org July 1, 2022 In 2010, our CEO & President, Russ Snyder says he was led by God to find VOACC’s first Chaplain to help build our church without walls, and that the Lord was leading him right to Reverend Sandra Trice Gray. It was predetermined by God to have me check into my LinkedIn account and I connected with Reverend Gray who had just left where she had pastored for many years,” Says Russ. After Russ met with Rev. Gray and spent some time with her in our programs, she came on as our first Chaplain on…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org June 20, 2022 Please join the entire VOACC family in welcoming Dr. Sheryl Neverson to her new role as Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy. Dr. Sheryl Neverson has been with our Chesapeake and Carolinas affiliate for approximately 4 years, serving as our Vice President for Maryland. Sheryl has a Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University with over 27 years of experience in the field. She is an outstanding clinical leader who is licensed as an independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), licensed as a Certified Social Worker (LCSW-C) and has served in several adjunct faculty positions…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org June 20, 2022 Lanham, MD Please join our entire VOACC family in welcoming Ms. Tiana Joyner in her new role as our Senior Vice President of Operations. Tiana Joyner has been with Volunteers of America since 2013 when she joined the VOA Carolinas team. She came to us with a background in Health and Gender studies, her BA from Monmouth University in New Jersey and significant experience in Veterans and Housing and Homeless Services. In 2017, she was a critical leader in the merging of the two affiliates which officially came together in 2019. Tiana has served…

VOACC Hosts Inaugural Mental Health Expo Targeting Youth in Prince George’s County Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org May 16, 2022 Lanham, MD On May 24th, our country was shaken by yet another horrific school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. According to reports, the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was known to be a loner who was often bullied for a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a difficult home life and lashed out violently against his peers and others. Salvador committed a heinous act that took the lives of nineteen children and two teachers. His story, like so many others, is…

Contact: Nicholle Grangerngranger@voaches.org April 6, 2022 Woodbridge, VA National Disability Provider Association Names Madison Landmesser Recipient of 2022 Virginia DSP Award Recognition honors excellence in workforce providing long-term supports and services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) has announced that Madison Landmesser, a direct support professional at VOACC, has been named the recipient of the 2022 Virginia DSP award. Landmesser joins 50 other recipients of ANCOR’s 2022 Direct Support Professional of the Year Awards, chosen from a field of more than 300 outstanding nominees. “VOACC is overwhelmingly proud of Madison, for her award…