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Statewide project to help veterans under way in Valley
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HELPING VETERANS: AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteers Annette Romeo of Canfield and Kenneth Thomas of East Palestine are working with HandsOn Volunteer Network of the Valley on a statewide pilot project to address the problems of military veterans.
The ultimate goal is to get veterans-service organizations to collaborate.
BOARDMAN — Helping veterans is at the heart of a statewide pilot project being developed by HandsOn Volunteer Network of the Valley.
The research revealed several re-occurring themes to the problems veterans face, said Maureen Drummond, executive director of HandsOn, which serves Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Older veterans have difficulty accessing services and benefits and often fall victim to issues related to poverty, such as lack of transportation to clinics, lack of knowledge about benefits and how to access them, and low usage of supportive services.
Younger veterans, and older veterans primarily from the Vietnam War, face issues of homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, mental-health screening and services, lack of employment opportunities and reintegration into civilian life issues, she said.
“Startling statistics, a long history of the RSVP [Retired and Senior Volunteer Program] of Mahoning and Trumbull counties working with veterans, and President [Barack] Obama’s emphasis on serving the needs of veterans through community support were factors that caused HandsOn to get involved in the project,” Drummond said.
Doing the project legwork are three AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteers — Annette Romeo and Kenneth Thomas, and lead VISTA volunteer, Gretchen Brown. The project coordinator is Kelly Noyes.
The project is funded by a three-year $100,000 grant from the Corporation of National and Community Service, the federal arm of VISTA. When the living allowance and health benefits and stipend for education expenses are factored in, the total project cost is about $200,000, Drummond said.
The VISTA volunteers have been placed in Mahoning and Trumbull counties and are identifying and contacting organizations that work with veterans, identifying support systems, and beginning conversations with these groups to design a stronger system or bring systems together to avoid duplication and ultimately serve more veterans, she said.
VISTA and RSVP volunteers meet with individuals and small groups, such as veterans organizations, to tell them about the project, recruit volunteers and learn about less-traditional support systems in the communities, Drummond said.
She said veterans volunteers are being sought to help other veterans to be with them through the process of accessing benefits.
“No one tells veterans when they come back what they are entitled to. They are supposed to be informed, but it doesn’t happen,” she said.
And sometimes, she said, veterans don’t want to admit they don’t know where to go or who to see for help.
HandsOn does not provide direct services. Rather, its goal is to help build services and to supplement those that exist, bring organizations together to meet needs and prevent duplication, and to ensure that veterans and their families have alternatives to the current system.
The ultimate goal, she said, is to get veterans-service organizations to collaborate.
The VISTA volunteers talked about what they hope to accomplish through the project.
“I want to make veterans aware of the benefits” to which they are entitled, said Thomas of East Palestine.
Romeo, of Canfield, said she hopes to recruit older veterans to help the newer veterans as they come back to civilian life.
“It might be therapeutic for both of them,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to expansion of the project. I have no doubt it will be successful here and expand statewide,” said Brown, of Youngstown.
The veterans population sometimes goes unnoticed in the community. This project could bring positive attention to Youngstown and the state, Noyes said.
“We want to make sure veterans service is celebrated and that they feel they can contribute to society and have the mechanism to do so,” Drummond said.
alcorn@vindy.com
HandsOn Volunteer Network of the Valley is participating in a state pilot project to create sustained services for veterans primarily through the collaboration of veterans organizations. Here are some of the things that research for the project discovered:
The number of veterans afflicted by post-traumatic-stress disorder is projected to reach 500,000 as a result of the war in the Middle East.
At any given time, there are nearly 500,000 homeless veterans.
Most returning veterans were unable to find civilian jobs that matched their military occupations.
The percentage of unemployed veterans more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, from 10 percent to 23 percent.
Half of veterans between ages 20 and 24 earned less than $25,000 a year.
Twenty-five percent of employed veterans reported earning less than $21,840 a year.
Education-assistance initiatives offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had little impact on employment or salaries of former military personnel.
Sources: Boston Globe, Nov. 12, 2007; National Alliance to End Homelessness; VA report published in the Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2005; HandsOn Volunteer Network of the Valley