Courtesy Photo | A group of volunteers gather to support the homeless veteran count in the Lawton-Fort...... read more read more
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As the nation pauses to thank veterans, there were those at Fort Sill who made sure every veteran here knows they count.
Many Soldiers and Marines took to different stations and streets across Lawton-Fort Sill to help homeless veterans as part of the "I Count" campaign. The volunteers donated basic items and asked questions as part of the point in time survey.
Staff Sgt. Nicolas Martinez, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 78th Field Artillery, said the experience was eye opening.
“We found this one veteran who used to be in the field artillery. He had no shoes on, and neither did the person who was with him. My friend and I were like ‘We can’t let this happen.’”
Martinez and another Soldier from 1-78th FA went back to them and gave them old PT shoes.
“Watching another human being, a grown man, crying — you have no other choice. You have only the will to help. They thanked us and told us we were blessings,” said Martinez.
Jervis Jackson, an Army veteran, coordinated the volunteers’ efforts.
“The point in time count helps service providers in Lawton-Fort Sill to identify the needs of our veterans experiencing homelessness and determine how resources can most effectively be used to help improve their situation,” said Jackson.
He works as the Lawton Housing Authority programs coordinator and said the information on both the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population helps:
• Understand changes in trends among veterans experiencing homelessness;
• Adjust the types of programs and services available according to need and use resources as efficiently as possible;
• Justify requests for additional resources and/or programming modifications;
• Raise public awareness about the issue of veteran homelessness; and
• Measures the community’s progress towards preventing and ending homelessness.
Additional data is collected on special needs, income, and numbers of times and length of homelessness. Although every attempt is made during I Count to reflect the total number of veterans experiencing homelessness on a specific date, it is understood that some may go uncounted.
“You realize I’m going to get out of the military and I might not have a house or a steady paycheck,” said Martinez. “You don’t really think about that and it’s shocking. Some people do great things in their service, but life happens. And sometimes you just need redirection and you just need help climbing out of a hole.”
The goal of the campaign is to get to “functional zero” which means that at any point in time, the number of veterans experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness will be no greater than the current monthly housing placement rate for veterans experiencing homelessness.
Jackson said once the Veterans Resource Center in Lawton is complete, it will give them the ability to take veterans into their program immediately and begin the work of identifying needs and providing the resources necessary to transition them into permanent housing within 30 days of becoming homeless.
“As a veteran myself, it gives me great pleasure to know that this community has made homelessness among veterans a priority,” said Jackson. “I was there when we identified 107 veterans experiencing homelessness in this community in September 2013. I have witnessed the efforts of this community to reduce that number and make ‘functional zero’ a foreseeable reality. How can one not feel good about that, veteran or not?”
Those Soldiers and Marines who volunteered in I Count went back to their units and shared their experience with others.
“It felt like an honor. It felt like going out there actually mattered. It was one of those things you knew it was a good cause, but once you were out there you realized people need to do this more,” said Staff Sgt. Dustin Barker, C 1-78th FA.
| Date Taken: | 11.11.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.11.2021 12:11 |
| Story ID: | 409212 |
| Location: | LAWTON, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 147 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Veterans help veterans in I Count survey, by Marie Pihulic, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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