Helping Homeless Veterans
By helping ready homeless veterans for jobs through the American Job Center network, the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service may, in turn reduce homelessness among service members. At the ninth annual Regional Conference on Best Practices to Prevent and End Homelessness, Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for VETS Terry Gerton highlighted these efforts in her keynote address on June 5. Sponsored by Virginia’s Homeward and Continuum of Care, community organizations battling homelessness in the Richmond area, the event drew approximately 200 professionals from area nonprofits, public social service agencies, regional healthcare systems and local congregations. “Reaching the national goal of ending veteran homelessness requires leadership at all levels of government and across private and philanthropic partners,” Gerton noted, later adding, “It’s up to all of us to work together to keep those who defend our rights to assemble in the streets from having to sleep in them.”