Carson City veterans group attracting more stakeholders
More than two dozen people attended Wednesday's meeting of the Carson City Veterans Community Council (CCVCC), the local branch of the state of Nevada's Green Zone Initiative, a program introduced by the Governor's Interagency Council on Veterans Affairs.
Nevada's Green Zone Initiative is a statewide effort to improve veteran access to the services of community stakeholders through resource consolidation.
"It looks like we're going full steam ahead," said Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong, who originally organized the first Green Zone Initiative meeting in Carson City with hopes of generating greater community participation.
Looking around the room at the more than two dozen attendees Wednesday afternoon, Furlong was pleased with the participation from Carson City stakeholders so far.
"Where we are at now is light years ahead of where we were a few weeks ago," he said. "We want veterans to see Carson City as a place for them to live and raise their families."
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 388 President and CCVCC Chair Frank Reynolds noted that the first meeting drew 11 people.
That number has more than doubled in three weeks.
Most of those attending Wednesday's CCVCC meeting represented veteran service providers or resource organizations, the very community stakeholders the Green Zone Initiative targets for active participation.
Among those in attendance were the Rural Center for Indepedent Living (RCIL) and the Do Drop In, the Nevada National Guard, the Ron Wood Family Resource Center, JOIN, Inc, Nevada Job Connect, Carson City Health and Human Services, the Carson City Senior Center, the Nevada Division of Aging and Disability Services, the Nevada Department of Veterans Services, Veterans Resource Centers of America, as well as the Adopt-A-Vet Dental Program, a regional non-profit based in Reno that seeks to provide no-cost pro bono dental services to low-income military veterans in Northern Nevada.
Reynolds stressed the importance of spreading the word to other Carson City area service and resource providers who work with military veterans, and encouraging them to attend future meetings.
The more community stakeholders that can be on the same page for veterans the better, the council agreed.
The final draft of a charter officially forming the local community council was also approved Wednesday afternoon by vote of those attending. See the charter draft below.
"Today we're going to adopt the charter," Reynolds told the attendees of Wednesday's council meeting.
The CCVCC Charter outlines the group's purpose, goals and roles, which collectively are to improve access to the services and resources available to military veterans through better interagency communication and greater ease of use for the veteran consumer.
The CCVCC's purpose, said Reynolds, is to take a more proactive approach toward veterans and the services available to help them.
This includes more preemptive efforts toward reintegrating veterans back into the community, as well as identifying at-risk veteran populations, and coordinating outreach activities.
"We want Nevada to be a proactive state, not a reactive state," he said.
The council also named two additional co-chairs to serve the alongside Reynolds.
Kevin Burns, Veterans Faculty Advisor and coordinator of the campus Veterans Resource Center at Western Nevada College, volunteered to co-chair the council. Burns also chairs the United Veterans Legislative Coalition.
Holly Best of the Work For Warriors employment program through the Nevada National Guard headquarters in Reno, volunteered to serve as the CCVCC's third co-chair.
The next CCVCC meeting is scheduled for May 4 at 3 p.m. in the Carson City Sheriff's Office Ormsby Room.
ccvcc_charter_3-2-16.pdf by Carson Now
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