SALINAS, Calif. -- It has been well-documented that veterans returning home from war often face a tough reality, but the Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs Office is working to make the transition a little easier.
Officials are in the early stages of planning a new veterans drop-in center, hoping to create a centralized location in the county where veterans can access all the resources they need.
Michael Magpusao, project coordinator, said he hopes it will be a place to "find that lost camaraderie that veterans had when they were in the service, in the military."
Organizers said they want to meet the unique needs of veterans coming home from combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, often after multiple deployments. The unemployment rate for recent veterans was 9.1% in January, almost a percentage point higher than the national average.
Calvin Angel, the Central Coast local interagency network coordinator with the California Department of Veterans Affairs, said he envisions a safe place with the latest technology and resources to assist veterans with employment materials, mental health needs, claims, and other necessities.
"We want to create a place where they can come in and talk about these things, maybe on a drop-in basis or see someone on a regular basis who they know had that same background," said Angel.
Angel and Magpusao said they are kicking off the campaign now in hopes of cutting the ribbon on a center by June. They said it would ideally be located in Salinas, but they are still searching for a location. Angel estimated the start-up costs would be a minimum of $200,000, but they were hoping to raise as much as $500,000.
"We're hoping once we get this campaign kicked off that the community rallies around it and understands why it's important. We decided we're going to put a name to it that we think the community will rally around," said Angel, adding they would release the name at a later date.
The proposed drop-in center would meet a different need than the Veterans Transition Center, located in Marina, which provides services for homeless veterans including housing, employment services, and case management programs.
Anybody who would like to help with the drop-in center is encouraged to contact Calvin Angel at the Military and Veterans Affairs Office at (831) 647-7617 or email Michael Magpusao at michael@usiav.org.
