Alvis CEO driven to help with second chances
As Alvis prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a sold-out Evening of Light fundraiser on April 28, President and CEO Denise Robinson looked back on the nonprofit’s work to create second chances for those who have been incarcerated or have developmental disabilities.
Q: From beginnings as a halfway house, how has Alvis grown?
A: Alvis is an extraordinary success story. In fact, over the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of men, women, young adults and children in Ohio have received direct services from the organization.
Alvis was founded 1967 to provide the tools to assist those who are seeking a second chance at a productive life, but the tools provided and the number of people served has increased dramatically since then.
Alvis began as a single house serving less than 60 men. Today, our agency operates programs serving individuals and families that have become involved in the criminal-justice system at 13 locations in Ohio. Our 14th location, the Alvis Pages Recovery Center, opens in April.
Q: What prompted the expansion into also serving the developmentally disabled?
A: The prompt for the expansion was based on the community need. Alvis’ work with the developmentally disabled population began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At that time, leaders at the agency saw that a significant number of the inmates in Ohio prisons were “mentally retarded,” which was the term used at that time. That has since been replaced with “individuals with developmental or intellectual disabilities.”
The prison setting didn’t provide an environment conducive to helping these people change their behaviors. Also, these individuals were often the victims of abuse at the hands of other inmates. Alvis worked with state officials to develop a pilot residential program to address the specialized needs of this population and opened Wittwer Hall in 1981, which is an intermediate-care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Q: How did you come to work for Alvis?
A: As the daughter of a police officer and a teacher, I never thought I would find myself working in the male-dominated corrections field. While still in school at Ohio State, I began working at Wittwer Hall. I learned that people with “mental retardation” were being incarcerated. I simply thought that just didn’t make sense, and I had to do something about it. That’s when I came to Alvis. That program helped me see that all Alvis clients were just seeking a second chance. From there, I was hooked.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you have helped Alvis address?
A: The biggest challenge is worrying about the finances, so people can get the best service. If there’s anything that keeps me up, it’s that we’re not able to serve someone. When I first started, one of Alvis’ programs was in danger of losing funding as a result of a poor audit by the funder. I lived at the program until the problem was resolved and vowed the agency would never be in that position again. Since that day, my motto has been to be “audit ready” every day.
One of the biggest challenges, though, is ongoing. I work tirelessly to get people to see Alvis clients as like the rest of us and not “those people.” The dramatic increase in the number of justice-involved people has not been in response to increases in crime rates, but rather a result of changes in public policies and sentencing. Right now, Ohio faces an epidemic of heroin overdoses, and until fairly recently, the emphasis was on punishment, not treatment.
Q: By what metrics does Alvis measure its success?
A: Alvis programs work, and they change lives. Our community corrections and re-entry programs are provided to individuals while they are still near their families, and focus on changing behavior in real-world settings. It’s a very effective and less-expensive alternative to prison.
We also measure success in more emotional ways. I also see Alvis’ success in our (developmentally disabled) clients as they gather with joy as a family and celebrate Halloween or Mardi Gras. I see a man’s pride who just got his first legitimate paycheck, and I see the eyes of a child who is painting a picture with her mother, whom she didn’t see for two years while the mother was in prison.
Q: How is Alvis supported? A: Alvis is supported by contracts for services with federal, state and local government agencies. In addition to these contracts, we receive private-sector donations from individuals, foundations and corporations.