Tag Archives: combat veterans

Veterans Village Plans for the Future

Posted on by

By Chloe Short
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO — The Veterans Village coming to Jonesboro features major plans.

More than 5,000 veterans live in Craighead County and around 200 of those veterans are reported as living below poverty level. The Veterans Village plans to help homeless veterans get back on their feet.

The Beck Pride Center will be active in the Veterans Village by making sure the right services and paperwork are provided to the homeless veterans. Interested students with majors in social work, counseling, physical therapy and other degrees from Arkansas State University will work with The Beck Pride Center through volunteering or internships to assist in the Veterans Village. Individuals from the Veterans Village will be able to receive those services after they have left.

Beck Pride Center director Lynda Nash (photo by Chloe Short)

“Veterans have been a productive member of society in the past. Something’s happened, so at that point we want to put them back in that role again. They’ve given to society, they continue to give and they should be honored for that,” said Lynda Nash, director of Beck Pride Center.

Other organizations waiting to get involved are the Disabled American Veterans Group, Veterans of Modern Warfare and the PTSD Foundation. The village will find residents through word of mouth but also through law enforcement expressing concern, veteran’s service groups, contacts through other veterans, and by contacting those who show up at the HUB downtown.

Nash said she’s pleased the Veterans Village is set for Jonesboro, since she will now have local options for them and their families if needed. Sending veterans needing housing assistance to Memphis, Tennessee or Poplar Bluff, Missouri are currently the only options available.

“Once accepted, they’re willing to work a program, so it can lead to a more permanent setting for them,” Nash said.

The village’s development on Aggie Road will be built down from Pepsi Beverage warehouse. The Cooper-Mixon Architect Firm originated all of the design aspects and created housing to meet the needs of each individual. Hillary Starnes, Jonesboro’s community services manager, said the homes should be completed by late 2020.

John Mixon, architect at the Cooper-Mixon Architect Firm, said nine homes will be built: two homes are made for families and the other seven are designed for single occupants. Each house features a different exterior. The village includes a community building and a community pavilion.

47694366402_f5dabc4290_k

Sign on site of the future home of the Veterans Village. (photo by Chloe Short)

“The Veterans’ Village is a fully accessible community with different scales of experiences and a continuum of public to private life,” Mixon said.

Arkansas Development Finance Authority granted $1 million to cover funding needs for the Veterans Village. The Arkansas Development Finance Authority released a Notice of Funds Available and received three applications. Cheryl Schluterman, president of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, said each application must meet application completeness, fulfill requirements and be financially feasible. Of the three applicants, Jonesboro met the criteria.

“There is still funding available for other projects. So far, Jonesboro is the only recipient of National Housing Trust Funds in Arkansas,” Schluterman said.

Bill Campbell, director of communication for Jonesboro and spokesperson for the mayor, said the mayor is going forth with the challenge to end veterans’ homelessness.

The city will be providing transportation at the village. There will be a bus stop, bicycles and a bike rack. The JET system will be an option. The village accommodates veteran’s dogs as well.

Gym Helps Combat Veterans

Posted on by

***

by Miranda Reynolds
Delta Digital News Service

PARAGOULD – Organizations across Northeast Arkansas work with veterans to get them more involved; gym memberships give some another option.

CrossFit Cathal, located in Paragould and owned by Randy Vest, reaches out to veterans in the surrounding communities to help those in need. The gym has been supportive of nonprofit organizations since opening.

CrossFit Cathal joined forces with Rivers of Recovery to reach out to more veterans. Rivers of Recovery works to take veterans on trips at no cost to the veteran. Vest and Levi Crawford, Rivers of Recovery’s marketing director, knew each other from a previous encounter.

They met in 2009 during a tour in Afghanistan. During the one-year tour, Crawford suffered serious injury from direct and indirect fire. It caused him to lose vision in one eye. This caused Crawford to become involved in Rivers of Recovery.

“Upon coming home and transitioning from military life to hospital life, to civilian life, is when I was fortunate enough to go on a trip with Rivers of Recovery.  It helped me a great deal in a very hard and uncertain time in my life. After the trip, I stayed in contact with the organization and decided that it was my duty to help the organization and provide other combat veterans with the experience and help I was to grateful to receive,” Crawford said.

Vest’s decision to join forces with Rivers of Recovery came easily to him due to the local aspect of the organization.

“The reason I chose Rivers of Recovery is because it supported local veterans. These are people that are walking around in your community, they’re actually veterans I served with,” Vest said.

CrossFit Cathal gives veterans an opportunity to work with other veterans in a more personal way, said level one instructor Caroline Jarrett.

“It’s more personal this way because every class has a coach and you find your members coming to you with issues going on in their lives whereas in a regular gym, there’s somebody probably manning the door and they’re letting you do whatever you want to do,” Jarrett said.

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects many veterans. Vest said CrossFit Cathal can be one way to battle it.

“People deal with their PTSD differently: some seek counseling, others have hobbies, some people come in here and just want to sling some weight and breathe heavy, get it out of their system. That’s their therapy,” Vest said.

The partnership between the two allows Crawford to see veterans focus on their personal health.

“A goal I am already seeing being accomplished is providing our past participants a place welcoming of veterans to socialize and focus on their physical health which plays a large role in a person’s mental health,” Crawford said.

In 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, a total of 252,279 veterans reside in Arkansas. CrossFit Cathal, Rivers of Recovery and numerous other organizations continue to serve veterans in the natural state.