Officials help Woonsocket veterans access resources
WOONSOCKET – U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-RI) held his first veterans forum for area veterans at the St. Joseph Veterans Hall at 99 Louise St. last week with the help of state and local veterans officials.
The evening included a pasta dinner and then the forum with the likes of R.I. National Guard Adjutant General Christopher Callahan, former Marine Lance Corporal and city veteran Michael Harris, Dr. Susan MacKenzie, director of the Providence VA Medical Center, Director of the Rhode Island Division of Veterans Affairs Kasim Yarn, and Department of Labor and Training Director Scott Jensen.
Cicilline said the forum will be one of several to be held with the help of veterans groups and his outreach staff around the state.
“It is really an opportunity for veterans to ask questions and for me to talk a little bit about my work in Washington on behalf of veterans,” Cicilline said.
The participating state, veterans and military representatives would also provide the area veterans with an opportunity to learn more about
available veterans resources, he noted.
“They will be able to talk a little about what is going on in their respective agencies or departments and then to answer any questions the veterans have,” the Congressman said.
Cicilline brought along five caseworkers from his office, who along with the staff of the other participating agencies would be available to help veterans with issues they are facing. Cicilline said they would also be able to continue that process after the forum.
“So anyone that has a need, all the caseworkers are here to help them,” he said. “It is a way to be sure that we are providing services to our veterans and to be sure that we answer any questions that they have, to be sure that they are aware of the programs and services that are available to them and to just listen to them,” Cicilline said.
Cicilline said his staff already does casework interventions on behalf of veterans that can involve housing, issues about substitute medical care, mental health services, and employment services. Cicilline said the goal is to handle the all the difficulties that arise “when people do their service and come back and re-integrate in the community, and to make sure that as they are aging, they fully understand the benefits that are available to them and that they are taking full advantage of all the help that is available.”
With the war in Afghanistan coming to a close, Cicilline said veterans services will soon be seeing a “huge increase in our veterans population” and he is already advocating in Washington to make sure the VA and other service agencies are properly funded to handle that increase.
“We are going to see a significant increase in our veterans population and I say all the time we have to understand that our responsibility to our returning veterans is to make sure that we provide them with everything that they need in all of those areas, healthcare, mental health services, housing, employment services, all the things our veterans need when they return,” he said. “They have earned those benefits and we have an obligation to ensure that we provide for them in the way services are delivered,” he said.
Callahan told the gathering that he has been working with Yarn, recently appointed to his cabinet level position by Gov. Gina Raimondo, on a “a veterans summit project that we are very proud of that is starting to bring organizations, volunteer organizations, organizations within interagency governmental organizations together.” The organizations and groups are working to create a common database and a common thread for response so when veterans seek outreach, “that that process becomes a little more streamlined and it is just easier for the consumer,” Callahan said.
“So we have been kind been teed up for the six months or so and we are in a really good place for Kasim and his team to kind of dig in and we’ve both got some action officers working the Vets team is really running hard with it,” Callahan said.
“The other thing I would share with you is that between myself, and Scott and Kasim, we have been essentially tasked by the Governor to make sure we are conducting the outreach we need to do to veterans,” Callahan said.
The general noted that he fits into that process a bit differently while commanding 3,300 National Guard members serving in Rhode Island and about 850 full-time employees.
The state has maintained a high deployment rate during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and on the flip side of that Callahan said he has both active Guard members and veterans who continue to serve with the Guard.
“So one of my stated goals and our partnership with Kasim’s team is to make sure our current men and woman serving in the Army National Guard, the Air Guard and the Reserves can still feel free and be unencumbered in their quest for veterans services whether they be medical through Dr. MacKenzie’s organization, employment, whatever it is that they need,” he said. “We want to ensure that we provide them with those opportunities so that they could potentially do both,” Callahan said. “For a long time, the paradigm was to say “Hey thanks for your service, you are now a veteran, go into Veterans Services,’ and for us that’s not the box I work in. I’ve got thousands of veterans that still work and serve in the Armed Forces right here in Rhode Island,” he said.
Yarn and MacKenzie have already held their own forum for local veterans at the St. Joseph Veterans Hall and have been continuing to provide outreach around the state.
Harris told the gathering about his own service with the Marines and ongoing efforts to create state memorial to the nine Rhode Islanders killed at the Marine barracks attacked by terrorists on Oct. 23, 1983.
“The General Assembly in the near future is going to enact a commission for Beirut veterans to have a memorial at the Statehouse. So I am hoping we can get the support here from the constituents here in Woonsocket and across the state to support that and to reach out to their legislators so we can recognize the nine Rhode Island Marines that perished that day,” Harris said.
Cicilline told the veterans in the audience that “you have all made incredible sacrifices so we can live in the freest most wonderful countries in the world.” The sacrifices veterans have made, “the sacrifices your families have made need to be honored by ensuring all the services you need, whether they are mental health services, VA services, employment assistance, and housing assistance are available and we have an obligation to ensure that they are,” he said.