November 22, 2025 • 21 mins
Earlier this month, we marked Veterans Day and paid tribute to all the service members who give their time, energy, health, and so much more to ensure our nation stays safe. However, veterans are in need of resources all year long, and in New England, veterans have a big ally in a Worcester non-profit called Veterans, Inc. From housing programs to suicide prevention, healthcare to case management, they cover it all and much more. Raymond Carville, the Public Affairs Manager at Veterans Inc. talks about all they have to offer with Nichole on this week's show.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. Thanks again for tuning
in this week. I'm Nicole Davis. Recently, of course, we
marked Veterans Day to pay tribute to all the service
members who give their time, health, energy and much more,
(00:28):
all to keep our nations safe. However, veterans are in
need of resources and help all year round, not just
one day, and here in New England they've got a
big ally in a Worcester nonprofit called Veterans Inc. From
housing programs to healthcare, suicide prevention to case management, Veterans Inc.
Covers it all in much more than that. Ray Carville
is the public affairs manager at Veterans Inc. Ray, thank
(00:50):
you for the time. First off, tell us a bit
more about the organization, your history and how this all works.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
The surprising thing that everybody says about Veterans Inc. Is
where the large nonprofit provider of supportive services to veterans
and their families in New England that nobody's ever heard of.
So this will actually be our thirty fifth year, which
is shocking. We're celebrating our thirty fifth anniversary next year.
We began right here in Worcester, Massachusetts, back in nineteen
(01:16):
ninety one, and when we originally opened up, we opened
up in the historic National Guard Armory in downtown Worcester.
It was solely as a shelter for homeless veteran veterans,
who at the time were predominantly Vietnam veterans, some Korean
War veterans, and of course all men, all men. In
that thirty five years, our mission has changed extraordinarily. We
(01:37):
realized that just providing housing to veterans, although that's a
critical step. When you are able to house someone, you're
able to give them an environment which they can begin
to heal, where they can begin to address the traumas
that they're going through and they can start creating a
plan for getting themselves reoriented and reintegreated back into our communities.
But we realized housing wasn't enough, because how is that
(01:58):
person going to keep the housing they have unless you
give them a job, and not just a job, but
a job where they can find dignity, where they can
make a living wage, where they can afford to keep
that housing, and how can we expect our veterans or
anybody else to get up every day and go into
the office to earn the money to pay for that
housing that they already have if they don't have their
(02:19):
mental wellness. And so that's become a big part of
what we do here too. Now we're very proud in
those thirty five years to have expanded to all six
New England states as well as Montana and North Dakota.
And I am so pleased to say that we have
a grant program, a free program for veterans in their
families for just about every situation that a veteran could encounter.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That is incredible. And let's talk about the difference between
what they have waiting for them when they come home
from service, what the federal government can give, or what
the federal government doesn't always give, and how you're able
to kind of come in and help them become that
whole veteran that you all talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Sure, So so I'll speak about this as many of
the staff here do who are also veterans. You know,
I come at this from from a from an army perspective,
and I went through that transitional period and experiencing it
then and working with veterans. Now, you know, it's it's
so obvious that that leaving the military is one of
the greatest inflection points that anybody will ever experience in
(03:18):
their lives. Why is that, Well, because in a very
short matter of time, you're leaving behind so many things. Right.
You're leaving behind your job, so that's a paycheck, right.
You're also leaving behind your health insurance. You're leaving behind
where you lived, your comrades in arms, your friends. You
know that that bond that's created amongst amongst soldiers, ceremony, airmen,
and Marines while they're in You're leaving behind that mission.
(03:42):
And what they give you is really not that much information.
They give you a transition course in a state where
you're likely to never return, on a base that you're
never going to go on to again, and it doesn't
really address these things. Right, You're going to be coming
back to your domicilliary state. You probably haven't been there
in six seven years. Maybe the lands gape has changed,
the streets are different, Your contact network, your support network
(04:04):
might not be there any longer. You may come back
and be crashing on a friend's house, crashing on your parents' couch.
But there's such uncertainty. You've been thrust back into this
world with very few resources. So what I hope, my
hope for the future is that when the Department of
Defense transitions a military member back into the civilian force
as a veteran, that they integrate with nonprofits and community
(04:27):
organizations that are on the ground and the states where
their soldiers are going back to, because where the agile ones,
where the responsive ones, and we can work with these
folks in real time to try and ensure that they
don't encounter these crises during their transition.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
To begin with, how have you seen that transition change
from when you left the service and now here in
twenty twenty five when we have people transitioning out now,
is it easier for them? Is it more difficult the same?
What do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, one of the most important things that I've discovered
I got out in twenty twelve, and since that time,
the discussion of men mental health and wellness and substance
abuse amongst our veterans has has so increased and so embraced.
The vast experiences the veterans encounter. Why when they go
back out into the world because of experiences veteran their
(05:15):
experiences in the military. Veterans tend to have more traumatic
situations that they've they've experienced in their lives and those
traumas and they don't have to be from the military.
They could be an adverse childhood experience. They could be
trauma that happened after the military. But between the injuries
physical and mental injuries that they suffer during their service
and that trauma that tends to feed into some pretty
(05:37):
tough substance use issues. And when you combine post traumatic
stress disorder with substance use, it's a very difficult co
occurring situation to address. We realized that this is one
of the predominant drivers of suicidality, it's one of the
predominant drivers of homelessness and of unemployment. It's that it's
mental health and wellness and substance use disorders, and so
(05:58):
veterans inc. We were very proud to about eight years
ago open the first in the nation long term recovery
program for veterans and their adult family members who are
experiencing co occurring post traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder,
and that medically assisted treatment program does wonders it saves lives,
it changes lives. I'm so lucky to be a part
(06:20):
of an organization that sees the difficulties and the challenges
that veterans in their families face every day and have
taken measurable steps to address them.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, it's all about finding that purpose I feel once.
I've never served, so I can't speak to this firsthand,
but I feel from the other veterans I've spoken to
and other nonprofits I've spoken to, it's about finding that
purpose that when you're in the service every day, you
know you've got a job to do, you've got deadlines
to meet, you've got to be here, you've got to
do this. You're working all toward the same goal. And
then you come home and it's like, what is my goal? Now?
(06:53):
What am I doing with my life? And that is
a big question for anybody, much less somebody who is
just segueing out of such a big role in their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know, I think there's two matters to that. I
think the first is dignity and the first is purpose.
You know that there's for a veteran to be fully
reintegrated back into their communities. It's an opportunity for them
when they are able to take care of and be
part of their families, take care of and be part
of their communities, work an honest job that pays a
livable wage, and get up in the morning. When they're
(07:23):
able to see themselves like that, it's truly a remarkable transformation.
They they really do go back to that moment when
they raise their hands and they took their oath, and
they see themselves once again with that same agency, with
that same ability to drive their own lives and the
direction that they want to go in. And you know,
and the second part of that is purpose too. Rite
(07:45):
what does one do when one's mission ends? And I
try and tell every veteran that I meet, your service
is not over yet, your service to yourself, your service
to your family, your service to your community. And a
big part of that is is, you know, lowering these
day distances between all of us, getting out of this isolation,
going out and finding communities of veterans other veterans that
(08:06):
you can interact with and create bonds and create these friendships,
create stable support networks of people with lived experience that
can rely on each other. We need to do this
because we are our best allies. And advocates, and if
anybody is going to stop this scourge of veterans suicide,
it's first and foremost going to be veterans on the
(08:27):
front line.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Absolutely, So let's talk about the people you serve. You
mentioned all six New England states, which is really incredible
because we are a small part of the country but
still a very big part of the country. At the
same time, there's a lot of ground to cover, but
also Montana and North Dakota. So I've got to ask
why randomly Montana in North Dakota or not so random,
(08:48):
but why so?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Our chairman and CEO, Lieutenant Colonel Vin Peroni, is a
former lieutenant colonel and the Air Force, and he was
stationed out in Montana in North Dakota, and he had
some oportu tunities to work out there with the local
veteran communities and with the communities on the Native American reservations,
and his experience out there just demonstrated that the need
was there all across the country that while the you know,
(09:12):
while the individual circumstances may be different, the challenges are
still there the exact same kind of challenges that a
veteran faces in Massachusetts. They face in Montana and North Dakota.
But I think it's important to highlight that, you know,
veterans I got out in twenty twelve. Veterans don't look
like me, right. Veterans are predominantly younger. Of course, female
(09:33):
veterans are the fastest growing sub section of veterans in
the United States. And two hundred thousand to three hundred
thousand veterans are created each and every year. That's what
some people forget, right, even in a time of peace,
we're creating these veterans every year. But they are demographically
representative of our entire country. What does that mean that
their personal experiences, their cultural experiences, the way that they
(09:54):
view the world, the way that they interact with the
world is going to be different based on where they
grew up, their genders, their national origin, whatever it might be.
And we need to meet them where they are. We
need to meet them on the ground with respect, with
cultural appropriateness. We need to really give them the opportunity
to drive this, to focus this effort to reintegrate them back.
(10:16):
And that was a really poor explanation for that. What
I really wanted to get at is that it's so
very important to meet that veteran, see them as an individual,
and see them as a human being, and really have
them drive the whole process.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So then what do you do to make that happen.
Let's talk about how you get into these communities. You've
got little outposts in all the different states, and as
you mentioned earlier, it's important to be on the ground,
be local because nobody knows you like the people you
spend time with and grow up around. When a veteran
comes home. How do you get involved.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, we work very closely with the Executive Office of
Veteran Services here in Massachusetts, and we have partnerships with
state and city and nonprofit organizations throughout New England whereby
we can identify some of our veterans that are at
higher risk. We know that they've already intersected with law
enforcement enforcement, if they're having difficulty finding housing, or they've
been looking for employment for a long time. So to
(11:11):
those clients, So those potential clients, I say you reach
out today. One of the biggest issues to overcome with
veterans is that every veteran that you will meet out there,
when offered health ber assistance, will say no, thank you,
thank you very much. But there's someone who needs it
more than me. One of the biggest challenges is getting
the word out to these veterans that they deserve this.
(11:31):
They've already earned it when they raised their hands, signed up,
when they went into the military, they earned these benefits,
and it's critical to reinforce to them that this is theirs.
This is theirs and if they don't use these benefits,
no and will. But the other kind of client that
I want to get the word out to are those
that might not be in crisis right now. Maybe they
(11:52):
have a stable job, maybe they have a place to live,
they might want a better job, or they might not
even be aware of the benefits and the bonuses that
have already accrued to them that the federal, state, and
local governments are just waiting to give them. I encourage
those people to get ahead of this, reach out to us,
find out the ways that we can provide benefits you
might not even realize you and your family are eligible for,
(12:14):
because we're here for you.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I've got your website up right now, and I'm
just taking a look at all the different options for
assistance that you provide. I mean, we are talking everything
from services for women you mentioned female veterans a short
time ago. Families for veterans, because families, you know, they
go through their own reintegration as well. You've got health
and wellness support, physical and mental. This is a lot.
(12:38):
And how have you been able to pull all this
together over the years, because you've got to lean on
a lot of different to other community not just nonprofits
but community doctors and nurses and lawyers and advocates. How
do you get all these resources in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, it's it's the tireless effort of our outreach folks
that go out every single day into the communities and
tell people about our programs and what we have available
and give people the word not only to give to
other veterans, but to educate them about who veterans are
and what kind of people they are, and how wonderful
they are and how they should hire them and give
them housing and spend time with them because they are great.
(13:15):
They have so many wonderful skills of being leadership and
gold driven and veterans are such great people. And so
part of it has been educating our lawmakers, our legislators
into why veterans are disproportionately affected by different types of
marginalization in different structural barriers to getting services, and then
(13:37):
coming up with creative ways to solve those problems. We've
been very lucky to have an amazing delegation of legislators
in every state where we exist who are focused on
the needs of veterans and their families and they support
us dramatically. But I cannot go without saying that all
of this is based on community relationships, relationships at the
ground level to understand what's happening, where the resources are needed.
(13:59):
This isn't something that can be done from a strategic
level from on high. This has to be on the
ground and tactical. It's the it's the organizations all throughout
Western County that we deal with, Althrow out Massachusetts, all
throughout New England. It's a network of people that are
standing by ready to support our veterans, and those are
people we like working with. It.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Sure, what are the challenges getting into the more rural
areas like in Maine, you've got a rusta county, for example,
the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Even here in southern New England, we've got some areas
that are a little bit more rural that you might
not be able to have touch points in per se.
How are you working to make sure you reach veterans
all around the region.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, you know, and isolation. I know I've mentioned isolation before,
but you know it affects our veteran population, particularly our
elderly veteran population. So one of the challenges is creating
opportunities to outreach with telecontacts, creating a network where we
can allow technology to bridge some of those distance gaps. However,
(14:58):
technology infrastructure in some hearts of Maine and some parts
of Vermont and New Hampshire can be challenging. So how
do you get the message out to these veterans? How
do you work with them? Sometimes we'll have to meet
them at a local VFW or a local barbershop to
talk to them, if they don't have a computer, if
they never used an email before. But it's one of
the things that we could constantly advocate for with our
(15:19):
legislators at the state national level is an increase of
support for creating that telehealth infrastructure where by veterans and
their family members can access resources when they're in rural
or hard to get to areas. The barriers to access
should not be higher for a veteran getting assistance based
on what their zip code is.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, and I really appreciate that. A few minutes ago
you mentioned how you want people who may not even
be in crisis yet to reach out because a veteran,
I feel, might come home and they've got their family
and they settle into a job, and they've got money,
and they think, you know, I don't really need any
of these services. I'm going to leave them for other veterans.
But they deserve these services just as much as anybody else.
(16:00):
I mean, I'm grateful that they have that support, but veterans,
every veteran deserves all this support, and you know, the
things like we'll talk about this in a moment, the
holiday harvest. Every veteran deserves at the very least a
Thanksgiving dinner for what they've done, you know, and I
really appreciate that you all focus on that as well.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Let me just give an example. You know, the relationship
between video games and veterans is well known. Veterans love
video games. We're so pleased to partner with the Call
of Duty Endowment. Call of Duty, the video game maker.
Call of Duty has a wonderful program. And we have
an employment program that will get you the job today.
If you need a job, if you need a job,
it'll get to you today. CODE is a program focused
(16:39):
on post nine to eleven veterans. And these are the
folks I'm talking about. It might not be in crisis,
but boy, come in and CODE will focus on you.
It'll focus on your skill set. What are your dreams.
You may have a job today, but what is the
career that you want to be in tomorrow. What kind
of training do you need to get there? Upskilling? What
is it that will get you this job? And how
can we get you in touch with the people who
(17:00):
can give it to you. And those are the kind
of career reinforcement, career building, workforce development things that I
encourage veterans to take part in because they have the
soft skills and they have the hard skills to do
all of these jobs.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah for sure. All right, let's then talk about the
holiday harvest. This is coming up here pretty soon here
in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
My favorite event.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Oh well, and Thanksgiving dinner? How could it not be?
Tell me all about it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Sure, So you know, the basic idea is is that
you know, no veteran or their family members should go
hungry on Thanksgiving or any part of the year, of course,
but this is an opportunity for us to get together
as an organization and bring all of our community partners
in to provide Thanksgiving dinners, a fresh Thanksgiving dinner to families,
veteran families in need. How do we do that, Well,
(17:48):
we partner with local organizations to provide more than eight
hundred and fifty turkeys and all of the fixings to
veterans in their families. So that means fresh vegetables, it
means you know, you get your your mash, well, you
get to take you can turn them in mash paters,
gravy stuff in cranberry sauce, you get the whole nine
yards and even a pie from Tabletalk pie of your choice,
and we take our We're in this beautiful National Guard Armory.
(18:11):
It's a historic building downtown in Worcester, mass and we
convert the enormous drill hall inside into this farmer's market,
so each station is set up like a little farmer's
stand and the veteran and their family can go around
and actually shop for their own Thanksgiving meal, right that's
what we're talking about. Dignity, dignity and providing services, creating
that experience, that wonderful family experience for the veteran to have.
(18:35):
It's such a wonderful day and you know, if there
are people out there that would like to be involved
in it, I encourage you to check it out on
our website. There's also an opportunity to donate. There's a
turkey button. With a click of a button, you can
donate a turkey to a veteran or and their family
this year. Find out how you can become involved in volunteer.
We have so many events on our home page. Following
Holiday Harvest this year, in partnership with Ocean State Job Lot,
(18:59):
a wonderful organization will be giving out over six thousand
warm winter coats and five thousand children's toys to veterans families.
And boy, it just this season doesn't get any better
for me. I get to give out turkey's toys and
warm winter coats to veterans in their families.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
We love that. Can't beat that, honestly, really kid, really
kid phenomenal. So yeah, let's talk about money, because a
food is expensive right now, like more expensive than it's
spending quite some time. You're putting together Thanksgiving dinners for
eight hundred and fifty veterans families. How can people besides
bringing a bird for this effort, and between that and
(19:35):
the coats and the toys, what can people do to
help your efforts here?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well? So I encourage you to go on to our
web page. We'll always have a list of things that
we're looking for on there, whether it's seasonal, seasonal hygiene
products and clothing for veterans in their families. Could be
warm winter coats in the winter, could be summer clothing
in the summer. Different things we need at different times
a year. But I encourage you to go on there
and check it out. There's always going to be a thing,
(20:00):
a list of things that we would love to have
donated that would help our veterans and families so very much.
And we really do rely on members of the community
to take part and take an opportunity to give back to.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The veterans rya Veteransinc Dot org. If somebody happens to
be listening and they are hearing this and thinking I
really could use this assistance, I am at a point
where I need help. How can they reach out to
you besides social media? Is is email better? Is a
website better? A phone number? How should they go about that?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Anybody in the country can reach out to one eight
hundred four eight two two five six five, And I
mean anybody, doesn't matter if you're in New England, Montana,
or North Dakota. If you're a veteran and you're facing
a challenging issue, give us a call. If we're not
in your backyard, we will give you a warm handoff
to somebody where you are that can help you out.
So I really encourage one eight hundred four eight two
(20:51):
two five sixty five. Go to our web page www
dot Veteransinc dot org. Find out how you can help out.
Find out how you can get help, find out how
you come down and volunteer. Be part of the change,
be part of reintegrating veterans.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Love that all right? Well, Ray from Veterans Inc. Thank
you so much for what you're doing. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Thanks so much. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. Thanks again for tuning
in this week. I'm Nicole Davis. Recently, of course, we
marked Veterans Day to pay tribute to all the service
members who give their time, health, energy and much more,
(00:28):
all to keep our nations safe. However, veterans are in
need of resources and help all year round, not just
one day, and here in New England they've got a
big ally in a Worcester nonprofit called Veterans Inc. From
housing programs to healthcare, suicide prevention to case management, Veterans Inc.
Covers it all in much more than that. Ray Carville
is the public affairs manager at Veterans Inc. Ray, thank
(00:50):
you for the time. First off, tell us a bit
more about the organization, your history and how this all works.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
The surprising thing that everybody says about Veterans Inc. Is
where the large nonprofit provider of supportive services to veterans
and their families in New England that nobody's ever heard of.
So this will actually be our thirty fifth year, which
is shocking. We're celebrating our thirty fifth anniversary next year.
We began right here in Worcester, Massachusetts, back in nineteen
(01:16):
ninety one, and when we originally opened up, we opened
up in the historic National Guard Armory in downtown Worcester.
It was solely as a shelter for homeless veteran veterans,
who at the time were predominantly Vietnam veterans, some Korean
War veterans, and of course all men, all men. In
that thirty five years, our mission has changed extraordinarily. We
(01:37):
realized that just providing housing to veterans, although that's a
critical step. When you are able to house someone, you're
able to give them an environment which they can begin
to heal, where they can begin to address the traumas
that they're going through and they can start creating a
plan for getting themselves reoriented and reintegreated back into our communities.
But we realized housing wasn't enough, because how is that
(01:58):
person going to keep the housing they have unless you
give them a job, and not just a job, but
a job where they can find dignity, where they can
make a living wage, where they can afford to keep
that housing, and how can we expect our veterans or
anybody else to get up every day and go into
the office to earn the money to pay for that
housing that they already have if they don't have their
(02:19):
mental wellness. And so that's become a big part of
what we do here too. Now we're very proud in
those thirty five years to have expanded to all six
New England states as well as Montana and North Dakota.
And I am so pleased to say that we have
a grant program, a free program for veterans in their
families for just about every situation that a veteran could encounter.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That is incredible. And let's talk about the difference between
what they have waiting for them when they come home
from service, what the federal government can give, or what
the federal government doesn't always give, and how you're able
to kind of come in and help them become that
whole veteran that you all talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Sure, So so I'll speak about this as many of
the staff here do who are also veterans. You know,
I come at this from from a from an army perspective,
and I went through that transitional period and experiencing it
then and working with veterans. Now, you know, it's it's
so obvious that that leaving the military is one of
the greatest inflection points that anybody will ever experience in
(03:18):
their lives. Why is that, Well, because in a very
short matter of time, you're leaving behind so many things. Right.
You're leaving behind your job, so that's a paycheck, right.
You're also leaving behind your health insurance. You're leaving behind
where you lived, your comrades in arms, your friends. You
know that that bond that's created amongst amongst soldiers, ceremony, airmen,
and Marines while they're in You're leaving behind that mission.
(03:42):
And what they give you is really not that much information.
They give you a transition course in a state where
you're likely to never return, on a base that you're
never going to go on to again, and it doesn't
really address these things. Right, You're going to be coming
back to your domicilliary state. You probably haven't been there
in six seven years. Maybe the lands gape has changed,
the streets are different, Your contact network, your support network
(04:04):
might not be there any longer. You may come back
and be crashing on a friend's house, crashing on your parents' couch.
But there's such uncertainty. You've been thrust back into this
world with very few resources. So what I hope, my
hope for the future is that when the Department of
Defense transitions a military member back into the civilian force
as a veteran, that they integrate with nonprofits and community
(04:27):
organizations that are on the ground and the states where
their soldiers are going back to, because where the agile ones,
where the responsive ones, and we can work with these
folks in real time to try and ensure that they
don't encounter these crises during their transition.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
To begin with, how have you seen that transition change
from when you left the service and now here in
twenty twenty five when we have people transitioning out now,
is it easier for them? Is it more difficult the same?
What do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, one of the most important things that I've discovered
I got out in twenty twelve, and since that time,
the discussion of men mental health and wellness and substance
abuse amongst our veterans has has so increased and so embraced.
The vast experiences the veterans encounter. Why when they go
back out into the world because of experiences veteran their
(05:15):
experiences in the military. Veterans tend to have more traumatic
situations that they've they've experienced in their lives and those
traumas and they don't have to be from the military.
They could be an adverse childhood experience. They could be
trauma that happened after the military. But between the injuries
physical and mental injuries that they suffer during their service
and that trauma that tends to feed into some pretty
(05:37):
tough substance use issues. And when you combine post traumatic
stress disorder with substance use, it's a very difficult co
occurring situation to address. We realized that this is one
of the predominant drivers of suicidality, it's one of the
predominant drivers of homelessness and of unemployment. It's that it's
mental health and wellness and substance use disorders, and so
(05:58):
veterans inc. We were very proud to about eight years
ago open the first in the nation long term recovery
program for veterans and their adult family members who are
experiencing co occurring post traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder,
and that medically assisted treatment program does wonders it saves lives,
it changes lives. I'm so lucky to be a part
(06:20):
of an organization that sees the difficulties and the challenges
that veterans in their families face every day and have
taken measurable steps to address them.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, it's all about finding that purpose I feel once.
I've never served, so I can't speak to this firsthand,
but I feel from the other veterans I've spoken to
and other nonprofits I've spoken to, it's about finding that
purpose that when you're in the service every day, you
know you've got a job to do, you've got deadlines
to meet, you've got to be here, you've got to
do this. You're working all toward the same goal. And
then you come home and it's like, what is my goal? Now?
(06:53):
What am I doing with my life? And that is
a big question for anybody, much less somebody who is
just segueing out of such a big role in their lives.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know, I think there's two matters to that. I
think the first is dignity and the first is purpose.
You know that there's for a veteran to be fully
reintegrated back into their communities. It's an opportunity for them
when they are able to take care of and be
part of their families, take care of and be part
of their communities, work an honest job that pays a
livable wage, and get up in the morning. When they're
(07:23):
able to see themselves like that, it's truly a remarkable transformation.
They they really do go back to that moment when
they raise their hands and they took their oath, and
they see themselves once again with that same agency, with
that same ability to drive their own lives and the
direction that they want to go in. And you know,
and the second part of that is purpose too. Rite
(07:45):
what does one do when one's mission ends? And I
try and tell every veteran that I meet, your service
is not over yet, your service to yourself, your service
to your family, your service to your community. And a
big part of that is is, you know, lowering these
day distances between all of us, getting out of this isolation,
going out and finding communities of veterans other veterans that
(08:06):
you can interact with and create bonds and create these friendships,
create stable support networks of people with lived experience that
can rely on each other. We need to do this
because we are our best allies. And advocates, and if
anybody is going to stop this scourge of veterans suicide,
it's first and foremost going to be veterans on the
(08:27):
front line.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Absolutely, So let's talk about the people you serve. You
mentioned all six New England states, which is really incredible
because we are a small part of the country but
still a very big part of the country. At the
same time, there's a lot of ground to cover, but
also Montana and North Dakota. So I've got to ask
why randomly Montana in North Dakota or not so random,
(08:48):
but why so?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Our chairman and CEO, Lieutenant Colonel Vin Peroni, is a
former lieutenant colonel and the Air Force, and he was
stationed out in Montana in North Dakota, and he had
some oportu tunities to work out there with the local
veteran communities and with the communities on the Native American reservations,
and his experience out there just demonstrated that the need
was there all across the country that while the you know,
(09:12):
while the individual circumstances may be different, the challenges are
still there the exact same kind of challenges that a
veteran faces in Massachusetts. They face in Montana and North Dakota.
But I think it's important to highlight that, you know,
veterans I got out in twenty twelve. Veterans don't look
like me, right. Veterans are predominantly younger. Of course, female
(09:33):
veterans are the fastest growing sub section of veterans in
the United States. And two hundred thousand to three hundred
thousand veterans are created each and every year. That's what
some people forget, right, even in a time of peace,
we're creating these veterans every year. But they are demographically
representative of our entire country. What does that mean that
their personal experiences, their cultural experiences, the way that they
(09:54):
view the world, the way that they interact with the
world is going to be different based on where they
grew up, their genders, their national origin, whatever it might be.
And we need to meet them where they are. We
need to meet them on the ground with respect, with
cultural appropriateness. We need to really give them the opportunity
to drive this, to focus this effort to reintegrate them back.
(10:16):
And that was a really poor explanation for that. What
I really wanted to get at is that it's so
very important to meet that veteran, see them as an individual,
and see them as a human being, and really have
them drive the whole process.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So then what do you do to make that happen.
Let's talk about how you get into these communities. You've
got little outposts in all the different states, and as
you mentioned earlier, it's important to be on the ground,
be local because nobody knows you like the people you
spend time with and grow up around. When a veteran
comes home. How do you get involved.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, we work very closely with the Executive Office of
Veteran Services here in Massachusetts, and we have partnerships with
state and city and nonprofit organizations throughout New England whereby
we can identify some of our veterans that are at
higher risk. We know that they've already intersected with law
enforcement enforcement, if they're having difficulty finding housing, or they've
been looking for employment for a long time. So to
(11:11):
those clients, So those potential clients, I say you reach
out today. One of the biggest issues to overcome with
veterans is that every veteran that you will meet out there,
when offered health ber assistance, will say no, thank you,
thank you very much. But there's someone who needs it
more than me. One of the biggest challenges is getting
the word out to these veterans that they deserve this.
(11:31):
They've already earned it when they raised their hands, signed up,
when they went into the military, they earned these benefits,
and it's critical to reinforce to them that this is theirs.
This is theirs and if they don't use these benefits,
no and will. But the other kind of client that
I want to get the word out to are those
that might not be in crisis right now. Maybe they
(11:52):
have a stable job, maybe they have a place to live,
they might want a better job, or they might not
even be aware of the benefits and the bonuses that
have already accrued to them that the federal, state, and
local governments are just waiting to give them. I encourage
those people to get ahead of this, reach out to us,
find out the ways that we can provide benefits you
might not even realize you and your family are eligible for,
(12:14):
because we're here for you.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I've got your website up right now, and I'm
just taking a look at all the different options for
assistance that you provide. I mean, we are talking everything
from services for women you mentioned female veterans a short
time ago. Families for veterans, because families, you know, they
go through their own reintegration as well. You've got health
and wellness support, physical and mental. This is a lot.
(12:38):
And how have you been able to pull all this
together over the years, because you've got to lean on
a lot of different to other community not just nonprofits
but community doctors and nurses and lawyers and advocates. How
do you get all these resources in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, it's it's the tireless effort of our outreach folks
that go out every single day into the communities and
tell people about our programs and what we have available
and give people the word not only to give to
other veterans, but to educate them about who veterans are
and what kind of people they are, and how wonderful
they are and how they should hire them and give
them housing and spend time with them because they are great.
(13:15):
They have so many wonderful skills of being leadership and
gold driven and veterans are such great people. And so
part of it has been educating our lawmakers, our legislators
into why veterans are disproportionately affected by different types of
marginalization in different structural barriers to getting services, and then
(13:37):
coming up with creative ways to solve those problems. We've
been very lucky to have an amazing delegation of legislators
in every state where we exist who are focused on
the needs of veterans and their families and they support
us dramatically. But I cannot go without saying that all
of this is based on community relationships, relationships at the
ground level to understand what's happening, where the resources are needed.
(13:59):
This isn't something that can be done from a strategic
level from on high. This has to be on the
ground and tactical. It's the it's the organizations all throughout
Western County that we deal with, Althrow out Massachusetts, all
throughout New England. It's a network of people that are
standing by ready to support our veterans, and those are
people we like working with. It.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Sure, what are the challenges getting into the more rural
areas like in Maine, you've got a rusta county, for example,
the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Even here in southern New England, we've got some areas
that are a little bit more rural that you might
not be able to have touch points in per se.
How are you working to make sure you reach veterans
all around the region.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, you know, and isolation. I know I've mentioned isolation before,
but you know it affects our veteran population, particularly our
elderly veteran population. So one of the challenges is creating
opportunities to outreach with telecontacts, creating a network where we
can allow technology to bridge some of those distance gaps. However,
(14:58):
technology infrastructure in some hearts of Maine and some parts
of Vermont and New Hampshire can be challenging. So how
do you get the message out to these veterans? How
do you work with them? Sometimes we'll have to meet
them at a local VFW or a local barbershop to
talk to them, if they don't have a computer, if
they never used an email before. But it's one of
the things that we could constantly advocate for with our
(15:19):
legislators at the state national level is an increase of
support for creating that telehealth infrastructure where by veterans and
their family members can access resources when they're in rural
or hard to get to areas. The barriers to access
should not be higher for a veteran getting assistance based
on what their zip code is.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, and I really appreciate that. A few minutes ago
you mentioned how you want people who may not even
be in crisis yet to reach out because a veteran,
I feel, might come home and they've got their family
and they settle into a job, and they've got money,
and they think, you know, I don't really need any
of these services. I'm going to leave them for other veterans.
But they deserve these services just as much as anybody else.
(16:00):
I mean, I'm grateful that they have that support, but veterans,
every veteran deserves all this support, and you know, the
things like we'll talk about this in a moment, the
holiday harvest. Every veteran deserves at the very least a
Thanksgiving dinner for what they've done, you know, and I
really appreciate that you all focus on that as well.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Let me just give an example. You know, the relationship
between video games and veterans is well known. Veterans love
video games. We're so pleased to partner with the Call
of Duty Endowment. Call of Duty, the video game maker.
Call of Duty has a wonderful program. And we have
an employment program that will get you the job today.
If you need a job, if you need a job,
it'll get to you today. CODE is a program focused
(16:39):
on post nine to eleven veterans. And these are the
folks I'm talking about. It might not be in crisis,
but boy, come in and CODE will focus on you.
It'll focus on your skill set. What are your dreams.
You may have a job today, but what is the
career that you want to be in tomorrow. What kind
of training do you need to get there? Upskilling? What
is it that will get you this job? And how
can we get you in touch with the people who
(17:00):
can give it to you. And those are the kind
of career reinforcement, career building, workforce development things that I
encourage veterans to take part in because they have the
soft skills and they have the hard skills to do
all of these jobs.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah for sure. All right, let's then talk about the
holiday harvest. This is coming up here pretty soon here
in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
My favorite event.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Oh well, and Thanksgiving dinner? How could it not be?
Tell me all about it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Sure, So you know, the basic idea is is that
you know, no veteran or their family members should go
hungry on Thanksgiving or any part of the year, of course,
but this is an opportunity for us to get together
as an organization and bring all of our community partners
in to provide Thanksgiving dinners, a fresh Thanksgiving dinner to families,
veteran families in need. How do we do that, Well,
(17:48):
we partner with local organizations to provide more than eight
hundred and fifty turkeys and all of the fixings to
veterans in their families. So that means fresh vegetables, it
means you know, you get your your mash, well, you
get to take you can turn them in mash paters,
gravy stuff in cranberry sauce, you get the whole nine
yards and even a pie from Tabletalk pie of your choice,
and we take our We're in this beautiful National Guard Armory.
(18:11):
It's a historic building downtown in Worcester, mass and we
convert the enormous drill hall inside into this farmer's market,
so each station is set up like a little farmer's
stand and the veteran and their family can go around
and actually shop for their own Thanksgiving meal, right that's
what we're talking about. Dignity, dignity and providing services, creating
that experience, that wonderful family experience for the veteran to have.
(18:35):
It's such a wonderful day and you know, if there
are people out there that would like to be involved
in it, I encourage you to check it out on
our website. There's also an opportunity to donate. There's a
turkey button. With a click of a button, you can
donate a turkey to a veteran or and their family
this year. Find out how you can become involved in volunteer.
We have so many events on our home page. Following
Holiday Harvest this year, in partnership with Ocean State Job Lot,
(18:59):
a wonderful organization will be giving out over six thousand
warm winter coats and five thousand children's toys to veterans families.
And boy, it just this season doesn't get any better
for me. I get to give out turkey's toys and
warm winter coats to veterans in their families.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
We love that. Can't beat that, honestly, really kid, really
kid phenomenal. So yeah, let's talk about money, because a
food is expensive right now, like more expensive than it's
spending quite some time. You're putting together Thanksgiving dinners for
eight hundred and fifty veterans families. How can people besides
bringing a bird for this effort, and between that and
(19:35):
the coats and the toys, what can people do to
help your efforts here?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well? So I encourage you to go on to our
web page. We'll always have a list of things that
we're looking for on there, whether it's seasonal, seasonal hygiene
products and clothing for veterans in their families. Could be
warm winter coats in the winter, could be summer clothing
in the summer. Different things we need at different times
a year. But I encourage you to go on there
and check it out. There's always going to be a thing,
(20:00):
a list of things that we would love to have
donated that would help our veterans and families so very much.
And we really do rely on members of the community
to take part and take an opportunity to give back to.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The veterans rya Veteransinc Dot org. If somebody happens to
be listening and they are hearing this and thinking I
really could use this assistance, I am at a point
where I need help. How can they reach out to
you besides social media? Is is email better? Is a
website better? A phone number? How should they go about that?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Anybody in the country can reach out to one eight
hundred four eight two two five six five, And I
mean anybody, doesn't matter if you're in New England, Montana,
or North Dakota. If you're a veteran and you're facing
a challenging issue, give us a call. If we're not
in your backyard, we will give you a warm handoff
to somebody where you are that can help you out.
So I really encourage one eight hundred four eight two
(20:51):
two five sixty five. Go to our web page www
dot Veteransinc dot org. Find out how you can help out.
Find out how you can get help, find out how
you come down and volunteer. Be part of the change,
be part of reintegrating veterans.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Love that all right? Well, Ray from Veterans Inc. Thank
you so much for what you're doing. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Thanks so much. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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