Charlottesville, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Chaplain Joseph Varaksa, senior chaplain at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, recently shared uplifting stories on Morning News about the transformation he sees in inmates through faith and personal accountability. Representing Good News Global, Varaksa highlighted how programs like Women in New Direction help equip individuals with leadership tools, life skills, and spiritual grounding. “We’ve seen a lot of positive things… people acknowledging why they’re there,” Varaksa said. “It used to be a lot of finger pointing… now it’s a lot of young people just saying, you know what I’m here because of me. How do I change?”

Varaksa emphasized that many inmates, though raised in church, often lacked depth in their spiritual understanding. “I had a young man come to me, he grew up in church all his life, and some of the things I was teaching him inside he had no idea even existed,” he said. For Varaksa, purpose is the turning point: “Once that light is turned on, that they have a sense of value for themselves, it gives them purpose in life, and how to serve others” Through faith and mentorship, he believes incarcerated individuals are not only capable of change, they’re already living it.

To support this work, the community is invited to a major fundraising event on May 3 at Portico Church. The event begins with a free breakfast at 8:30 a.m., followed by the main program at 9:00 a.m., featuring music and a powerful keynote from guest speaker Richie Parker. Admission is free, with a love offering collected at the end to support the ministry’s ongoing outreach in regional jails and across 25 countries worldwide.

Listen here for the full conversation: