Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Cory Grogan | Volunteers prepare food provided by Breck Jones Catering to support the Central Oregon...... read more read more
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BEND, Ore. - Camaraderie and positive energy were on full display at the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch (COVR) during the 5th Annual Armed Forces Day Plant Sale & Breakfast Fundraiser, on May 21, in Bend, Ore. For the past five years, COVR has operated a 19-acre working farm that has engaged hundreds of veterans of different ages and eras in peer support and agriculture-related activities, or “agri-therapy”. COVR Founder and Executive Director Alison Perry said COVR is a sacred place that provides an environment of camaraderie for the veterans (whom Perry calls family) to participate and connect with nature and each other to support mental wellness with therapy and peer support.
Perry said the vision of a therapeutic veteran’s ranch started in 2007 while working on the PTSD Clinical Team at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. At that time, Perry was helping a 22-year-old Oregon National Guard veteran who had experienced severe trauma after being sexually assaulted by a Soldier he deployed with upon returning from Iraq. In addition to severe trauma, Perry explained that the veteran was exhibiting his first symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Perry, who had developed a desire to help those experiencing trauma, was sensitive to the veteran's unique challenges and wanted to find a better way to support him.
Perry recalled the day she was notified that the veteran had been checked into a psychiatric ward and was throwing furniture and threatening staff. Perry wondered to herself that if she'd been through everything this veteran had experienced, would she be reacting the same way. Her professional experience led her to believe that the veteran was being retraumatized in this setting.
“I looked at a social work colleague who was also working with the distressed veteran and said, ‘I wish we had a sheep ranch out east where we could send these vets when they got home, a place where they could work on the land, sleep under the stars, and be in a community of other veterans’," Perry said.
Perry added that now she sometimes finds it hard to believe that her vision is a reality, but sees the fruits of this labor of love regularly with a growing number of veteran participants every year, often reporting that “the Ranch” has changed their life.
“It’s hard to describe...it makes me emotional after 16-years of working with veterans, and seeing family and friends who struggled with feeling suicidal during and after deployments, sometimes feeling powerless,” Perry added. “It’s incredibly gratifying to know that a team of concerned, committed, dedicated veterans and veteran family members made a vision into the reality of this place. The Ranch gives veterans a sense of pride, a sense of connection, and the feeling of belonging to a community, changing the paradigm of how we integrate veterans post-military. I feel like this place provides a different approach that works.”
Members of the Oregon National Guard Service Member and Family Support Program (SMFS) visited the Ranch and were impressed by what they were witnessing at the plant sale.
Grace Fox, a military and family readiness specialist with ORNG SMFS, said her job is to connect service members and families with resources, and the Ranch is an example of an amazing resource that authentically helps veterans. Angela Jones, the family programs battalion leader for the ORNG 82nd Cavalry Regiment based in Central Oregon agreed with Fox.
“This is the type of connection we need. To know there is a place you can go (whether you’re still serving or not) and know that you have that family.”
Vietnam Veteran Joe Florio is the President of the COVR Board of Directors. Florio, who served as a Long Range Reconaissance Patrol (LRRP), said he experienced symptoms of trauma coming back from Vietnam but felt like he couldn’t talk to anyone other than people he knew from the military.
“When Alison told me about the idea of the Ranch I was intrigued. It’s a peaceful place where vets can get together and talk freely without holding back. It helps heal long term and short term. We have a lot of Vietnam vets here as well as recently separated veterans, and everyone is treated like family,” Florio explained.
Eric Hardin, a volunteer at the Ranch was a forward observer who deployed to Afghanistan and struggled to reintegrate after coming back from deployment. Hardin said he is an example of how the “agritherapy” and peer support approach is working, and that coming to the Ranch helped him learn to open up and interact with people after his combat experience.
“Taking care of the plants kind of helped me reconnect with life. I love this place; I love coming here. As veterans often do, I tend to avoid things that are good for me when I’m having issues, but every time I come here, I enjoy it and am grateful for the fact that it exists,” said Hardin.
For John Parsons, who is a peer support specialist at the Ranch and retired ORNG veteran, the peer support program provides an authentic experience where veterans often feel more comfortable opening to other veterans.
“We connect with veterans who are going through their recovery, no matter what that looks like, and just walk alongside them, meeting them wherever they’re at in their journey.”
Parson runs a weekly group at the Ranch that trains veterans to mentor their peers and directs those interested to state-certified peer support training. He meets weekly with about 15 other veterans to provide individual peer support. Parsons added that while helping veterans is extremely important to him, being at the Ranch also plays an important role in his own personal wellness.
“When I retired from the military and the Oregon National Guard, the biggest thing I missed was being around my Soldiers and being around other veterans, and the ranch gives me an avenue to connect with veterans regardless of era.”
Parsons said he loves the diversity of veterans that spans from Korean and Vietnam war veterans to young veterans who recently separated from the military.
“In 20-years of service and 7-years retired, I’ve only been a part of two organizations that have fundamentally changed the lives of veterans—and this is one of them,” Parsons said.
COVR’s Operations and Program Manager, Adrian de la Rosa, a Marine Corps veteran with a background in non-profit work, says that working with veterans is his calling, and that COVR is a special place like nothing he’s seen before.
“The outside-of-the-box thinking and concept that Alison has created here, to me that’s amazing. Every day we see and hear the success stories,” de la Rosa said.
For more information about Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, visit covranch.org or call 541-706-9062. You can also find COVR on Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In.
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.31.2022 19:14 |
| Story ID: | 421867 |
| Location: | BEND, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 266 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Veterans ranch in Bend provides an oasis for Vets to build connections & community, by SFC Cory Grogan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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