Virginia Klein

Background

About Virginia Klein

My name is Virginia M. Klein and I wanted to introduce myself. I have my Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. My background is with Social Services working with youth at risk, homelessness and offender reentry. In Washington State I worked on a Bill Gates sponsored program working with Foster Care to College Mentoring program assisting foster youth to graduate from high school and go onto college. This also involved independent living skills programs. I have been a Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian ad Litem for over five years. As the “eyes and ears of the court” I advocated for dependent children in court and worked with the families for reunification or other permanent placement for the child(ren). I have worked with homeless and at risk youth in case management. We worked on ways to change their lives by returning to school, finding employment, financial management, and housing. Through case management they would make the most to ensure the best opportunity for success in their new lives. As the Offender Reentry Housing Specialist I would secure housing for offenders being released from prison. As part of their rent subsidy they were required to participate in case management to identify their barriers. We worked on education, employment, mental health and addiction issues, parenting and child support modifications. This was a successful program, unfortunately the funding was cut. I have volunteered since I was 15 years old. My latest volunteerism was my favorite; I was the Cub Master for Pack 4490 in the Mt Olympus District. At times there were not enough volunteers so I had to pick up some extra roles to strengthen the Pack. Through recruitment efforts I was able to double the pack making it the largest in the district. We had a huge presence in the community with service projects like collecting flags for retirement and Scouting for Food.