8-24
Writing for the Valley Patriot this month is US Navy Veteran, and current Executive Director of the Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center, Jim Seymour. He is presenting his story and the center’s programs supporting our Veterans to the Valley Patriot readers this month. Many of the Valley Patriot readers will remember Jim from his many years of living in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
The Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center (hereinafter “CIVOC”) has been supporting veterans and their families on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket continuously since 1983. We are in our 41st year of providing a comprehensive menu of the essential life sustaining services across the three-county region that we serve. Our work empowers veterans to achieve lasting reintegration into the families and communities for which they have sacrificed.
Established by veterans to serve veterans across Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, we return ninety-one cents of every donor dollar we receive back to the men and women we serve…and none of our overhead is paid through or with donor resources.
We are proud to be able to share that we have recently partnered with the Bob Woodruff Foundation and their “Got Your Six” program, giving us a national profile. With over forty years serving the men and women who have served us, CIVOC is highly effective at meeting our mission and its goals.
Veterans have come to Cape Cod and the Islands for many years due to the more favorable climate and the many channels for public support to be found in our region. Among those, access to food and housing remain components that are essential to achieving favorable outcomes for the veterans and their families within our region. CIVOC affords our clients multiple food pantries, counseling services, transitional housing (when available), and many other supportive resources. Moreover, the board and executive leadership is heavily weighted towards military veterans who work exhaustively to help their brothers and sisters.
Apart from the individuals and families we served during FY23, we referred out hundreds of additional leads to our veterans for housing, medical records, and social security benefit information. We currently manage thirteen single room occupancy (SRO) transitional housing units in two locations, Hyannis, and Dennis, and we provide a robust case management program for every resident, as well as case management for four veterans living in affordable housing located in Sandwich. Last year our Food Pantry served over 2,500 Veterans, and with family members added, the total helped was 13,440 souls.
As it was for many regional nonprofits, the COVID pandemic era changed much of how we have gone about serving those in need. Perhaps the biggest was our response to food insecurity – our mobile food pantry which now makes it possible for us to reach veterans living on the Outer Cape Cod and the Islands, and who without our mobile programs, might otherwise find it impossible to benefit from our resources.
Moreover, the mobile food pantry has enabled us to schedule new food distributions twice monthly each in Falmouth and Eastham, as well as once monthly in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard. We have also been able to add a new, weekly distribution at our operations center in Hyannis. So, in the span of less than sixteen weeks we have grown our food pantry program from four monthly distributions to fourteen…an incredible increase of 308%. Our weekly veteran families served has jumped from 45 to now 260 families each week.
While we know there is a pressing need to create programs and structures that allow organizations to build more workforce and lower income housing, we cannot independently succeed in meeting the numbers required to meet the current and future demand. That reality has brought us to this very new, evolving relationship with HAC.
CIVOC and those we serve are being hindered by the reality that we live on the 1,306-square-mile peninsula that sports 400 miles of shoreline where there’s every maritime-related opportunity along its breadth and width.
Our driving distance to several major metropolitan centers and a heavily populated northeastern US corridor where friends and family might reside has made land acquisition daunting for us to accomplish as a single entity. We hope that this new partnership with HAC will empower both of our organizations to be successful in pursuing new housing opportunities.
We have also entered Community-Based Partnerships with Habitat for Humanity, and the Second Chance Thrift Store of the Family Pantry of Harwich. In both cases, these partners now give us a ready resource to move gifts of clothing and furniture that we could not previously accept from donors due to space and/or utilization limitations.
In return, they will provide us with credits that can be used to help clothe and house new veterans. Then, when a veteran needs clothing or furniture for a job interview or a new apartment, we can help get them settled without any cash outlay. In handling gifts received in this manner, we can maximize the beneficial impact of the non-cash gifts that we receive.
Although research has found that the veteran population in the Commonwealth is decreasing, with a total estimated population of 180,298, Barnstable County remains the largest veteran population per capita containing approximately 9.6% of all veterans. Additionally, research indicates that Dukes and Nantucket counties are the only counties in Massachusetts experiencing an increase in their veteran population.
The cohorts we will serve (aligning with the veteran groups we currently serve) include:
All veterans of any era With specific attention to the following areas:
veterans over the age of 65;
veterans with disabilities to include blinded veterans;
veterans with traumatic brain injury;
women veterans;
veterans facing housing challenges;
veterans facing food insecurity;
veterans facing transportation challenges, veterans facing health and wellness challenges, veterans who have faced domestic abuse and, LGBTQ identified veterans.
OUTREACH SERVICES:
An assessment of Massachusetts Veterans needs conducted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) identified the importance of revamping outreach efforts to be more proactive and targeted. One recommendation was that organizations needed to offer a variety of solutions and tools because one size no longer fits all, given the diverse veteran communities we serve.
A critical success factor will be the expansion of outreach specific activities that enable the organization to identify and connect with the veterans in need from among the nearly 19,000 veterans living in the service area.
We recognize there are two kinds of veterans we typically encounter, those who want to help in our work, and those who need our help. We also realize there is a third group, those who don’t come forward at all. It is in this group where we find veterans who may need help but are reluctant to ask or unaware of what may be available. A key measure of success will be the number of veterans identified and connected to in the region.
Outreach will be at the local community level through county and town-based organizations and will leverage a regional collaborative of existing partnerships with the Department of Veterans Services, the Veterans Administration (VA), and CBOC.
Services: Housing Assistance
Recognizing the high-cost real estate market on Cape Cod and the Islands for both home purchase and home rental:
• Provide online program related to financial budgeting in partnership with Bank of America (no cost);
• Provide financial housing assistance in the form of temporary vouchers to veterans who face challenges to the CORI process;
• Provide real-time coaching on reviewing a lease, working with a landlord, and setting up a residence
• Continue partnership with VNOC and the SSVF program to provide much needed housing money, and to provide additional/enhanced housing deposit support to veterans and their families
Employment Assistance
Refer job ready veterans to the MassHire Career Center in Hyannis.
Transportation Assistance
• Provide access to computers to complete educational online requirements ie: financial budgeting, school enrollment, education, training etc. (On-site computer lab – three computers)
Health & Wellness Supports
• Provide Holistic Therapies to include yoga and reiki programs, and diet and nutrition programs, as part of an overall counseling program with external contractors/partners.
Food Insecurity Assistance
• Provide expanded mobile food pantry services to homebound and disabled veterans across the service area using a newly acquired refrigeration van.
• Establish a food pantry hub facility large enough to support expansion plans to veterans in need while storing fresh food and dry good staples.
• Empower the food operations center to facilitate acquisition of larger weekly food deliveries, as well as resource donations from local food partners. These opportunities were previously impossible for us to accept due to inadequate transportation. The purchase of a new, refrigerated, liftgate equipped, box truck resolves those issues.
• Expand hours of operations and increase locations across the service area for veterans and their families in need.
• Add Food Pantry Operations staff
Legal Assistance
• Provide access to an established local area discounted legal network to assist with interpreting rental/housing contracts; wills; discharge upgrades; and other legal matters
Life Skills Supports
• Partner with Heroes in Transition to refer veterans and family members to their life skills focused programs to include the transitional support group program, canine co-pilot program that works with the veteran and their PTSD service dogs, therapy dogs and emotional support dogs.
• Partner with Ironstone Farm to provide equine therapy programs.
Social & Recreational Assistance
• Provide recreational opportunities to build camaraderie. Partner with:
o Saconnesset Golf Club
o Healing Waters Fishing Program
• Provide Monthly Gym Memberships
The growth of our community support throughout the year was nothing short of amazing. We were selected for the second time as a Seaside Lemans Beneficiary Award Recipient, for the first time a recipient of the Chatham Chorale Sings Summer Concert, our continued second year beneficiary of Local Copley Master Artist Marie Luise Hutchison’s renowned Christmas Card fundraiser, and so many local school and community groups hosting activities to raise funds in support of our work.
Throughout the year it was and honor to host Congressman Keating and newly minted Secretary of the Office of Veterans Services Jon Santiago for a tour of our facilities and learn more about our organization.
As we continue in 2024 – there is much to do. We hope you will agree with us this is a very worthy mission. Please follow us on Facebook- Linked In and Instagram – please visit our website www.capeveterans.com and sign up to receive our monthly newsletter. Golfer, Navy Veteran, Patriot, Husband, and tireless Veterans advocate, Jim Seymour, is a “hero in our midst.”
The Merrimack Valley American Legion Posts ask all World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans to call (603) 518-5368 and sign up for an Honor Flight to the Memorials in Washington DC! The Valley Patriot staff ask Veterans of all eras, to go to the American Legion’s Website www.legion.org, and join the American Legion.
The American Legion’s mission is working with our Congress, our Nation’s Veterans, and our community, preserving our Veteran’s Benefits for future generations and serving all Veterans and their families.
John Cuddy served in the US Navy’s Construction Battalions (also known as the Seabees) after retiring from the US Navy; he earned a bachelor’s in history and a master’s in economics from the University of Massachusetts on the Lowell Campus.
He has been employed in Logistics at FedEx for the last 28 years. If you know a World War II, Korean War, or Vietnam War Veteran who would like their story told, please email him at John.Cuddy@Yahoo.com ◊