Transforming Lives Through Wheelchair Restoration

For more than 25 years, staff and residents at CoreCivic have been helping the ministry, Joni & Friends, restore mobility equipment, like wheelchairs, to support individuals around the globe through the ministry's Wheels for the World™ program.

In August, volunteers in the wheelchair restoration program at CoreCivic learned the impact of their efforts. In fact, at a ceremony celebrating a total 55,000 wheelchairs restored through CoreCivic's partnership with Wheels for the World™, participants and CoreCivic staff learned about a young woman living with cerebral palsy in the Philippines who has been impacted by the generosity of this partnership. She received her first wheelchair at 25 years old.

Since 1998, Joni & Friends has partnered with CoreCivic to operate occupational programs in its correctional facilities where donated wheelchairs are restored to like-new condition before being shipped to countries around the world. Six CoreCivic facilities have been home to wheelchair restoration programs over the past two-and-a-half decades, with two currently in operation: South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tennessee, and Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi.

Serving as the largest Wheels for the World™ restoration program, residents at South Central have restored nearly 27,000 wheelchairs since 2008. Chairs from South Central have been shipped to 34 countries around the world, including Honduras, Uganda, and Ukraine.

"Partnering with Joni & Friends over the past 25 years and reaching the milestone of more than 55,000 restored wheelchairs has truly been a blessing," said Damon T. Hininger, President and CEO, CoreCivic. "The impact of Wheels for the World has been monumental not only for those who desperately need these wheelchairs, but also because of the life-changing impact this effort has had among those in our care who have participated in the restoration program."

Paul Dorthalina, director of Wheels for the World™, shared his inspiration through witnessing incarcerated individuals choose to do good for others amid their sentences.

"We can see the life-changing difference their participation in the Wheels for the World wheelchair restoration program is having in their lives," said Dorthalina.

Joni & Friends started Wheels for the World™ 30 years ago to meet a pressing need: 80 million people around the globe need a wheelchair, according to the World Health Organization, but in some countries less than 5 percent can access one. CoreCivic is proud to help organizations, such as Joni & Friends' Wheels for the World™, serve the needs of individuals globally.