| Every Friday
and Saturday night at three Manhattan
locations, over 3,000 families and friends
gather to embark on an overnight bus ride to
visit an incarcerated loved one, arriving at
about 6:30 in the morning at one of New
York's 70 prisons. The Elmira
Correctional Facility is one of those
prisons. Until the Interfaith Hospitality
Center opened it's doors in October 1997,
visitors, primarily women and young
children, had no place to wait out the hours
until they could be admitted to the
facility. Now, instead of remaining on their
bus or standing outside, they enter a
welcoming area inside the building. Each
month approximately 12,000 visitors from New
York State and surrounding areas pass
through the IHC.
Open from 7:00am to 3:00pm
weekends and most holidays, a part-time Site
Coordinator with one or two volunteers is
ready to assist visitors with help where
needed. These volunteers are the heart and
soul of our operation, with a time
commitment approximately three hours one Saturday or Sunday or less per month. |
