For Immediate Release

 

Date:                 October 17, 2007

Contact:             Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations

Phone:              (303) 318-8004

Fax:                  (303) 318-8070

 Web:                www.coworkforce.com/VET/

 

 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT TO OFFER ASSISTANCE
TO HOMELESS VETERANS DURING 2007 ‘STAND DOWN’

November 8 event a link to survival for hundreds of individuals on Denver’s streets

Where:  National Guard Armory

5275 Franklin Street

Denver

When:  Thursday, November 8, 2007

 

(DENVER) – In times of war, exhausted combat units were removed from the battlefields to a place of relative security and safety.  Those troops were said to be in a “stand down” mode.  Today, “stand down” refers to a day of grassroots, community-based intervention designed to help the nation’s homeless veterans as they face survival on the streets.

 

Stand Down events are held all over the country, most of them taking place in November to coincide with Veterans Day, says Thresa Arney of the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Services.  “It was started by two Vietnam veterans in San Diego in 1983 who decided that seeing veterans living on the street was more than they could bear.  They decided it was time for veterans to help each other.”

 

As she has done for the last seven years, Arney is co-chairing the event, now in its seventeenth year in Denver.  The 2007 Stand Down will be held on Thursday, November 8, at the National Guard Armory at 5275 Franklin Street.  The event offers a wide variety of information and assistance to homeless veterans to help them in their struggle on the streets and, wherever possible, to transition from the streets and shelters back into their communities.

 

“The 2007 event will provide attendees with flu and pneumonia shots, HIV testing and tuberculosis screening, sleeping bags, breakfast and access to a broad range of necessities,” Arney says.  “That includes food, clothing, medical, legal and mental health assistance, job counseling and referral, and most importantly, companionship and camaraderie.  It’s a link to survival for individuals who are on the streets, often unaware of the help available to them.”

 

Each year, the Stand Down draws hundreds of homeless veterans and Arney anticipates that the 2007 event will serve even more.  Transportation will be provided from several homeless shelters for clients, delivering them to the National Guard Armory where government and non-profit groups will be set up to provide a wide variety of services.  Job counselors and employment specialists from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will be there to assist those interested in moving toward self-sufficiency.

 

About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services.  Most of them are veterans from the Vietnam era.  The number of homeless Vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of soldiers who died during the war in Southeast Asia.  The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that on any given day in this country, as many as 300,000 veterans (male and female) are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.  Many other veterans are considered near homeless or at risk because of their poverty, lack of support from family and friends, and dismal living conditions in cheap hotels or in overcrowded or substandard housing.

 

Their barriers they face are numerous but each year, the Stand Down provides the assistance to keep them going and, for many, the event is a bridge to a better life.  The Stand Down is designed to transform the despair and immobility of homelessness into the momentum necessary to get into recovery, to resolve legal issues, to seek employment, to access health services and benefits, to reconnect with the community and get off the street.

 

The Stand Down is not in itself a solution, but rather, an opportunity for homeless persons to begin the process of regaining self-esteem and hope so that they can build a better future.

 

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