TDCJ News

28th Annual Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Awards

Canton-Based Program Receives Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Award

TBCJ Chairman Patrick O'Daniel, members of The Belief Center, Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott, and TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier.

(AUSTIN) – The Belief Center in Canton, Texas, was presented the Reentry and Integration Division Award during the Governor’s 2023 Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Awards program today. Accepting the award was Ms. Veda MacGregor.

The award was presented by Texas Board of Criminal Justice Chairman Patrick O’Daniel and TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier during an online ceremony.

“These award recipients, by volunteering countless hours, are helping to build a better Texas for themselves and everyone whose lives they touch,” said O’Daniel. “It is an honor to recognize them for their hard work and dedication.”

“It takes a very special kind of person to give of their time and expect no material reward,” said Collier. “These volunteers are invaluable to us and have made a lasting impact through their contributions to the public safety of all Texans.”

The Belief Center offers inmates who are military veterans the Hearts for Heroes program, an experience-based journey to the core of self. In this program, they explore, identify and begin to love themselves. Through guided meditations, music videos, private journaling, shared experiences and group works, inmate veterans are offered an opportunity to see the core of their true self and thus identify where they are in their journey. These voluntary exercises include topics such as Spiritual Connection, Family of Origin, Forgiveness of Self and Others, and Building Trust, just to name a few. Hearts for Heroes is designed to recreate simplistic pieces of your past and to address the significance of your present. The Belief Center assists inmate veterans in developing and implementing new ways to think, feel and cope with life as it applies to them.

The Belief Center is one of 23 organizations and individuals from across the state recognized for their efforts to help inmates and those who are on parole or probation. They donate many hours of their personal time every year with the goal of changing the lives of convicted inmates while aiding and comforting their victims.

In FY2022, there were 23,376 volunteers who provided a total of 146,649 hours of service.

Note to media: For more information, contact Robert Hurst at (936) 437-6052 or by e-mail at robert_hurst@tdcj.texas.gov.