Hey, this here is some real innovation reaching out to homeless veterans, sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the JBJ Soul Foundation Chairman, and Jon Bon Jovi. (I think the latter is a rocker, right?)
It’s about Project REACH (Real-time Electronic Access for Caregivers and the Homeless) and five finalists have just been announced.
I’ll be helping judge those finalists, and the results will be announced during the Health Data Initiative Forum in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS).
One out of every six men and women in our nation’s homeless shelters are Veterans, and Veterans are 50 percent more likely to fall into homelessness compared to other Americans.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki said “To achieve our goal to end Veteran homelessness, it is vitally important that we capitalize on innovative ideas from the public and private sector. The developer community has responded quickly and creatively to harness technology to meet the needs of homeless Veterans and their providers.”
Craig Connects 
First I heard of the project. I do PR for an interchurch council and think this would definitely in our wheelhouse. Any more info for future plans, contacts, or active locations? Wnt to stay on top of this.
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Finally, I feel like there is something comprehensive, I can do to Help and the frustration of being *alone* is narrowing, this is the kind of News I Love to read about and feel the positive energy from it!! You have my support!! 🙂
MMJ Patient/Advocate
~Angel XoX Stearns~
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I cannot comprehend how something like this, (our vets becoming homeless), and in such numbers! And this after they have put their very life on the line to defend our constitution. Suddenly this thought came to me… “Why is our Government releasing these men knowing their fate? Why not provide them with the same housing, food, training they were given to go to battle. The infastructure is their on Base! So, on their return provide the same, until the Government we all depend-on houses, feeds and retrain them for civilian life. Then they would have a decent home to return too, not a cardboard box under a bidge!”
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I must agree with terry, I cannot understand why any Vet should be homeless and unemployed, this Government should learn to do better by its own citizens first! first and foremost its Veterans. I want to go on , but the thought angers me so much, This Government does not do enough for its veterans.
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I am a Homeless Disabled Veteran, and I’d like to give some input. First of all Handouts are not cool, we may have to take them, and they are greatly appreciated, but they hurt, deeply. Empowerment would be so much better. Ok education, and business loans… but that is just throwing money at a problem, not solving it. What all Veterans are truly good at is Teamwork, working as a team for a good cause. But there is more, Veterans suffer from a bad employer, the Military is callous, as it sadly often needs to be, the men and women of the Military paying the price dearly. And today things are better if your vallentry cost you a limb, although I still hear the horror stories of Veterans found with maggots in their bedsores. However the large numbers populated by Homeless, and Failing Vets are more often due to the unseen wounds, the side effects of trace exposures to everything from chemical warfare to radiation. Exposure that wasn’t enough to kill you, but your ability to profitably work erodes rapidly later in life. In all such cases the VA fights you, there are many good people in the VA, but with hands tied, the VA will not help without proof positive that such a trace exposure was at fault. Meanwhile less and less able to work guarantees that the affected Veteran wont have the money to fight, and prove such. However all of that has little point. Most of us knew there were risks when we did what we did. We risked our lives and maybe we didn’t expect the price to be paid so slowly or painfully, but we made that choice, true nobely. And that is the whole key, we all would like to be able to hold our heads high. But individually, we will typically fail as we come up against the unexpected limitations the exposure eroded us to, or the new challenge around the next corner of our body failing us. A new way of making a living is an answer, and schooling is part of that. Assembled in teams watching for the signs of failing, and guided through the hurtle to a new level of self worth and reliance Homelessness in Veterans can be avoided long before having to loose everything and end up in that cardboard box. The question is, how can a team that falls down and perpetually needs to pick up the pieces to regroup, how can that team be profitable? I’m sure there is a way.
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