Homefront Help

Homefront Help is SIGNAL Connections’ effort to support U.S. service members, veterans and their families. The column highlights programs that offer resources and assistance to the military community ranging from care packages to benefits and everything in between. In that same spirit, Homefront Help presents opportunities for readers to donate time, offer resources and send words of thanks to those who sacrifice for freedom. Programs that provide services are listed in red. Opportunities for the public to reach out to service members are listed in blue. Each program description includes a link to the organization's Web site, when available.

New England Center for Homeless Veterans
The New England Center for Homeless Veterans (NECHV) extends a helping hand to any homeless veteran facing the challenges of addiction, trauma, severe and persistent mental illness, and unemployment; however, the veterans must be committed to sobriety, nonviolence and working for personal change. The organization is located in Boston, and though most clients are from the Boston area, the NECHV has aided veterans from all 50 states.

Homeless veterans seeking help should go to 17 Court Street, any time of the day or night, and request assistance. Veteran status will be verified through the discharge form (DD214). If the DD214 is not readily available, NECHV staff will make an emergency request from the Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis for the appropriate information.

The center’s support services include a residential program, specialized counseling, housing programs, training opportunities, job placement and medical help. The residential program has three levels. The first is the “Cot Squad,” in which veterans receive intensive counseling to address and resolve immediate personal issues. Individuals are given thorough assessments and the determination is made about the need for more intensive medical care.

The second level is the “Transitional Housing Program” that offers more comfortable living environments. To qualify for this, veterans must be working or enrolled in a training or educational program. This level concentrates on financial management and the search for permanent housing; clients are prepared to transition to self-sufficiency. The third level is a move to the 59 single-occupancy permanent units in the John Joseph Moakley Veterans Quarters located at the center. Typically, the rooms are 98 percent occupied with veterans who have completed level two.

The center’s Veterans Training School offers life skills as well as pre-vocational and vocational courses. It also assists with résumés and provides career counseling, JumpStart workshops and a job posting board. More information about the NECHV, its efforts and the ways to assist with time, talent and treasure is available on the Web site.

Army Community Covenant
In the sphere of military community support, Army Community Covenant operates at the strategic level. The organization aims at raising awareness and encouraging businesses, agencies and groups at the local and state levels to create and foster state and community partnerships that assist service members. The first phase of the program is the signing of the Community Covenant. Each community determines its own wording for the document and decides on the number of signatories, usually between 16 and 20 people. The signers often include governors, mayors, other civic leaders, a senior military representative and a service member as well as his or her spouse and child. The document is intended to be displayed in a public area.

The purpose of the covenant signing is to invite states, cities and towns across the United States to demonstrate their support for the military community during this time of war—the longest in U.S. history with an all-volunteer force. Since April 2008, 85 communities have signed Community Covenants, and often the events become an opportunity to announce new regional initiatives or programs to support service members. Army Community Covenant’s goal for 2009 is to offer every state, city and town the opportunity to host these ceremonies.

More information, including contacts and how to host a ceremony, is available on the Web site or by contacting Maj. Gen. Craig B. Whelden, USA (Ret.). In addition, visitors to the site can learn more about other efforts designed to support military families as well as state and local best practices. Coverage of Community Covenant also is available in SIGNAL Connections.

Boatsie’s Boxes
Boatsie’s Boxes started out sending packages to the base hospital in Balad, Iraq, and now gives goodies to several military hospitals as well as young troops deployed for the first time. In addition, through help from service members, items now are reaching the front lines of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The organization does special mailings at holidays such as Operation Christmas Stocking and the recent mailings of bags of jelly beans at Easter.

Contact and donation information is available online, as are photo albums from various years. A list of items Boatsie’s needs to send to the troops also is posted; goods especially necessary for the upcoming hot-weather months are listed in red.

The SIGNAL Connections staff encourages readers to take advantage of the programs mentioned in this column and to pass along the information. In addition, if you know of a program that is helping service personnel, please let us know about it. Submit that information to SIGNAL's news editor.

The SIGNAL Connections staff has made every effort to verify the legitimacy of these programs and to include information accurate at the time of publication. Inclusion in this column does not constitute an endorsement by AFCEA International or SIGNAL Connections.

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