New group offers help to area veterans

The issue of homeless veterans may not appear to be a problem throughout rural parts of the country, but Chad Werner said it is a bigger problem than it appears to be.

Werner, resource specialist for Southwest Wyoming Recovery Access Programs (SW-WRAP), is one of three members who started the Panhandle Veterans Resource Network earlier this year to help area veterans with a variety of issues. The network includes a variety of organizations and groups that offer many services to veterans.

“Before in the panhandle, there wasn’t much out there,” Werner said. “There was people in their area, and they were kind of doing their own flavor in their area, but now it’s pulling people together so we can row together to bring change to the communities.”

SW-WRAP, Werner’s organization, has a grant to help veterans throughout Wyoming and in 28 western Nebraska counties. They have offices in Scottsbluff, Chadron and North Platte. They can also meet clients at the Veterans Service Office in the Kimball County Courthouse.

The focus of SW-WRAP is housing.

“We’re a housing first program that is addressing homelessness and veterans that are on the verge of homelessness,” Werner said.

Some things the group helps address in housing assistant includes utilities, rent and child care, he said.

Werner said SW-WRAP does not just hand checks out to clients, but helps them with a program to provide stability and help them through their current situation.

“What we really are desiring is to bring supportive services and create a stability plan for that veteran and their family,” Werner said. “If they don’t have that support, that stability and those goals set, they’re just going to be in the same boat again.”

He said one of the biggest problems now is that veterans are making choices by paying for groceries instead of medicine they might need, or vice versa.

“Just because we’re living in rural America, doesn’t mean it’s any different,” Werner said added. “It’s a priority. People are making choices. The idea of homelessness can be foreign in rural America, especially if you’re not seeing them underneath bridges or on the corner of the street with a sign saying, ‘I’m homeless.’”

Shaun Evertson, Kimball County veterans service officer, said there are no veterans living under bridges in the county, but said he knows of at least 12 veterans sleeping on others’ couches at the present time.

“If they lived in a big city, they would be under a bridge,” he said.

Werner said they also help veterans locate employment and work with companies to hire more veterans. He said working with the entire community is the key to changing things for the better.

“Stability looks different for everyone,” Werner said. “Sometimes it’s housing, sometimes it’s employment. Sometimes it’s food, the basic necessities for life. The need of working amongst the community - business, the VSOs, the county, the mayor, the chief of police - is critical.”

The Panhandle Public Health District is also involved the PVRN through the VetSET program. VetSET stands to Veterans Serve Educate Transition.

Kendra Lauruhn runs the program in the panhandle to help veterans with readjusting to rural life.

“When people deploy, they come back and choose to live back in their hometown, they get isolated and they don’t know where to turn to for help. So that’s why we are here, to try to reach out to them,” Lauruhn said.

The VetSET program helps veterans find the appropriate medical help they need. It also helps with accessibility issues, Lauruhn said.

The new PVRN has been a big boon to the effort, she said.

“We aren’t Lincoln, we aren’t Omaha. They have readily accessible things in many of (those places),” Lauruhn said. “Here in the panhandle, we don’t. We’re trying to create a big network. We’ve created, here in the panhandle, the Panhandle Veteran Resource Network. Everyone in the panhandle, veteran-specific, non-veteran, any kind of service you can offer it. We’re all getting together so we can team up and help our veterans.”

There are currently 48 organizations who are part of PVRN to help the panhandle’s approximately 7,000 veterans. The services are also free to veterans.

Werner said the momentum in helping panhandle veterans since the group’s inception in March has been good for area veterans.

“Now there’s a lot of people who are talking and working together, and it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.

To contact SW-WRAP, call 307-875-2196 or visit its website at swwrap.com. To contact the PPHD, call 308-633-2866 or visit pphd.org/VetSet.html.