This month: Working Together
By Marcie Polier Swartz
Founder, CEO
Village for Vets
Every day more than 50 homeless Veterans come to the VA even though they are not formally enrolled in a program. The HUD VASH (Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Administration Supportive Housing) office does wonders processing them for low cost housing. The Welcome Center provides showers and a big living room with TV screens and a great place to hang out. And now Village for Vets, a charitable vehicle for the community at large to support our VA, has partnered with Meals on Wheels and the Westside Food Bank to feed the hungry Veterans. It costs barely $2.00 per meal or $500 per week to feed 50 a day. If you are inclined to help, visit www.villageforvets.org and click on donate.
The VA recently asked Village for Vets to organize 100 volunteers for the 3rd Annual Homeless-to-Housed Veterans Stand-Down event hosted at the Veterans Welcome Center on Friday, October 27, 2017 from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Brentwood School (BWS) is making it a reality by creating an agile on-line registration program. All volunteers will use this on-line form to register. Will you volunteer? Email us at info@villageforvets.org.
Brentwood School awarded 120 full scholarships to children of Veterans for Summer at Brentwood 2017. Blushington and Beauty Bus Foundation, each founded by BWS graduates, hosted A special Day of Beauty for female Veterans on August 1, 2017. They brought joy, laughter, and beautiful smiles to the faces and hearts of veterans. And, on August 17 at 8pm, New Directions (http://www.newdirectionsmn.com/) will use the Brentwood School Theater to put on an original play they created in conjunction with Imagination Workshop. Admission is free and the community is welcome.
The big news from UCLA this month is the opening of the UCLA legal clinic for Veterans on the WLA VA Campus on August 21, 2017. The UCLA-GLA VA Family Wellness Center is also opening this month under the auspices of UCLA’s Nathanson Family Resilience Center. The Center will help families to mitigate stress through family centered education and preventive care services.
UCLA’s newest class at the WLA VA, Phone-tography, is a bit hit. Due to demand Wordcommando, the popular writing class has added an additional day. Under the instruction of Robert Morgan Fisher, aka Gunny, the veterans are not only learning how to express themselves but are getting published!
The vast acreage of the VA does not seem so big. I’m getting to know it like the back of my hand. You may wonder how the VA will accomplish the goal of creating a community on the campus. They have already started, and we all play a crucial role. Go to www.villageforvets.org to see how you can volunteer or donate. Go to BWS VA Partnership
to see how deep the programs at BWS go to support and effect better lives for the Vets on the VA Campus. For more information about UCLA’s clinics and programs contact Patty Robinson Smith at pattyrobinsonsmith@gmail.com
WATCH FOR:
SERVED LIKE A GIRL – a documentary film by Lysa Heslov covering the Miss Veteran America Pageant. I saw the screening in August and what a moving way to get to know some of the women who choose to serve; how homelessness touches their lives and how they climb out of the abyss. Thank you again to Jaspen Boothe (pageant founder) and Lysa Heslov.
We’re all working together to help the VA create the Village for Veterans that it was always meant to have. What will you do?
