Co Founder Nj Sosvets Veteran Stakeholder Groups
Current1. Formation Of The SOSVETS Veteran Stake Holder Groups2. During our outreach efforts we learned early on that there were multiple agencies with in our service community all acting separately from each other. The original thought was to get everyone at one table at once as a way to identify homeless veterans. So we decided to form our first veteran provider stakeholders group in Passaic County and partnered with the Passaic County Veteran Services. The group met every 6 weeks and immediately was a success, with up to 60 veteran providers at some meetings.3. During the early formation of the group we identified several areas of veteran services that our community as a team could address. They included A. HousingB. Employment and EducationC. Veteran TransportationD. Veteran Advocacy E. Mental Health IssuesF. Community Awareness 4. The SOSVETS stakeholders groups have grown to 7 active groups within North Jersey serving 10 Counties.5. Our Philosophy was simple and direct.A. The starting question was “How Can We Help”B. Everyone is invited to the table. We had the strong belief that together we could do very good things that no organization could do alone.C. Our core principle was to be cooperative and not dominating in any way. D. Form good partnerships and relationships with all the veteran providers and service organizations in the community. E. Create a grass roots social network of services to better serve the veterans within the community F. To remain Non Partisan but at the same time give our groups and veterans access to people who could evoke change.
