Serving Our Returning Vets
Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder of IAVA, Donna Colonna, CEO, Services for the UnderServed
Services for the UnderServed (SUS), with investment firm BlackRock as host, convened a roundtable discussion on Monday, May 16 to address the issues facing our returning veterans. The roundtable brought together representatives from the public and private sector to determine how they can better work together to advance the design, funding, implementation and care coordination of high-impact, cost-effective veteran programs. Among the issues discussed were: the high level of homelessness, unemployment, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), suicide and depression, criminal justice, family reintegration and a service system that is at best currently fragmented, if available at all.
“We need help. We need the support of all types of folks, from finance, from government, from business together focused in on these men and women who served,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America I, who served as the Keynote Speaker.
Participants in the symposium included: New York City Council SpeakerChristine Quinn, representatives from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Veteran Affairs, HELP USA,Service Women’s Action Network, Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation,New York Community Trust, American Corporate Partners, The Doe Fund,The Jericho Project, Corporation for Supportive Housing, andEaster Seals. Veterans from SUS as well as IAVA also shared their experiences with veteran programs and the challenges they faced in obtaining care and benefits of which they were entitled.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was scheduled to attend and introduce new legislation, the Pro-Vets Act that calls on the Veterans Affairs Department to be more proactive in informing and providing veterans with the services they’re entitled to receive. Unfortunately, air traffic delays prevented her appearance.
“These men and women went there to protect us, and we as a community have to take that responsibility and respond in an effective and meaningful way,” said Yves Ades, Senior Vice President, SUS. Services for the UnderServed stated that they will continue this discussion through future roundtables.
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