Correction. That’s vocalhome.blogspot.com

Chuck:
We are hoping to revive VOCAL. The problem is that we are all older and don’t know anything about the internet. We are in the process of starting a blog at vocalhome.blogger.com. We hope to hear from some of the old VOCAL, NASVO and FUND people.

I’ve checked all rejected comments going back through 1/4/23, there are none from you. The only other comment you left in the last few days is linked below. (It’s a comment in this same article, just scroll down a bit).

https://floridaactioncommittee.org/member-submission-activists-unite/#comment-526117

Please contact us if you feel there is an ongoing error. We will need approximate submission dates and times for any comments you feel were lost.

Thank you.

Thanks Vicki for all you do. Your hard work and dedication should serve as an inspiration for everyone involved in this fight.

Hopefully, this will get approved as other posts haven’t. Chance is no longer the President of ACSOL Katherine Carpenter is the new President.
WAR is hoping to recruit millennials (1981 through 1996) to get involved. Also, we had an awesome conference, Hill Visits, and vigil at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. We had a documentary producer contact us and he sent a scout who was there filming the entire time. Our group had an hour-long meeting with Senator Josh Hawley’s staffer and the documentary guy was filming the entire time. The vigil is up on our Innocent Victims YouTube channel. More conference videos will be up soon including the Common Ground Panel discussion with Paul Shannon (NARSOL, Civil Rights Attorney Janice Bellucci and Vicki Henry (WAR).

equaljustice:
Thank you for your hard work and dedication and for founding FAC. I agree with what you say but wanted to add another observation.
I have personally seen families impoverished by having their children taken away or charged with a sex crime against them, or both. However, I have also seen some pretty well to do family members refuse to take their own grandchildren in. I never thought that anyone would ever refuse to take their own grandchildren in, but have run into some who have when we tried to keep the kids out of foster care. Some of these families had million dollar homes. Family members were horrified of children making allegations against them, so many families refused to take these kids in.
I have personally taken in many “sex offenders” in my own home in order to help them get their feet back on the ground. Most have reestablished themselves and some now own their own homes. In California, many of these houses are worth more than $1 million. While most people are impoverished in the short term, many will get back on their feet. There is some money there. We just need to get those that we helped out 20 or 30 years ago who are reestablished to open their wallets to this cause just like we opened our homes to them in their time of need.

Jacob:
VOCAL has been around a lot longer than the internet and sex offender registries with the exception of California’s registry. VOCAL was the only organization that “sex offenders” could turn to for support 40 years ago. We saw a lot of people through their charges, supported them in jail and prison and provided housing to them after their release.
Most registrants under 40 probably have never heard of VOCAL. This may be why you are unaware of their existence. They have always had “sex offender” supporters because every organization shunned “sex offenders” back in the 80’s.
Membership was strong in the 80’s but declined in the 90’s and into this century. However, a small hardcore group is hanging on. Unfortunately, everyone is getting older so unless fresh blood steps up, VOCAL in the U.S. is probably down to it’s last decade or so of existence.
The membership of FAC has grown, but some core members have left or are no longer as active, i.e., Chance Oberstein’s departure from ACSOL, and as the FAC founder noted below, even she burned out. And this getting burned out was what I was referring to in my post because I have seen so much of it.
VOCAL didn’t have the advantage of the internet. Hopefully, the internet gives these newer organizations staying power.
Getting the word out was VOCAL’s biggest challenge. Advertising is expensive. We always had people charged with sex crimes wander into our meetings and we provided them with what help we could. But we could never reach a broad audience. The internet changes all of that.
What happens to volunteers is that they get burned out as mentioned by equaljustice who founded FAC. VOCAL volunteers have all gone through the same thing. We were all housing people, helping with legal research, fighting county jails to allow our law books and legal research in, taking expensive phone calls from prison and jail. For most of us, this simply became to much.

Thank you so, so much for all you did and do and hopefully will continue to do. I am with you as far as burning out. This August will be 32 years since I was arrested. I was released from all sanctions almost 20 years ago, and yet everyday feels like I am still on probation.
I think the registry is worse than probation. When my probation office came by the house and I was not home, she would slide a business card in my door with “Call me”. When the deputy comes to my house and I am not home for a registry check, I get a nice 11″ long Yellow flyer that says “SEX OFFENDE TASK FORCE” on it.