S2S Stories: NC-VAN
Sherry Frye is a member of HB but lives in Goldsboro. She contacted me several weeks ago, wanting to participate in S2S but wanting to serve 'closer to home' in her own community. I found this to be a great idea so I started looking for options in Goldsboro. My first investigation stumbled upon NC Victims Assistance Network (NC-VAN). NC-VAN serves the victims of violent crime in a variety of ways. I was interested so I delved a bit deeper and found that an old friend was director of services. I contacted this friend, Scott Bass, and was immediately excited at the prospects. They need both short-term and long-term supports to victims. Scott described those supports as ranging from mowing a lawn, delivering groceries or prescriptions all the way to ongoing personal contact to help victims find resolution (sounds a lot like Stephen Ministry). NC-VAN is statewide and there is much we can potentially do in Raleigh to work with this fine agency.
As for Sherry Frye, she found that the options for her with NC-VAN on April 29 were not exactly what she needed. There were expenditures associated with the service options that made this prohibitive. She then found a solution to serve her community by environmental stewardship with Save the Frogs, identifying frog habitat and assuring proper environmental conditions for survival. I sent her a t-shirt and she worked 'alongside S2S' on April 29 with that organization.
The results of this contact were important. Outreach from Hayes Barton was broader that just our local community. Second, a relationship with another service organization will be cultivated; my hope is that NC-VAN can be an ongoing relationship in which we can find ways to support victims of violent crime in Raleigh.
