NBC Nightly News Coverage: March 23, 2009

The NBC Nightly News "Making a Difference"story tonight featured Augusta's Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit located within our VA Medical Center.  It's the only such unit like it, and correspondent COL Jack Jacobs (ret.) covered the powerful healing work going on at this unique facility.  The unit is an example of Army/VA collaboration, and according to Jacobs, is a "Model for the nation."  

COL Jacobs ought to know.  This Medal of Honor recipient was wounded in Vietnam, and chronicles his experiences in his new book,
"If Not Now, When?"   

The stories of MSG Tom Morrissey and others are featured in COL Jacobs' story.  MSG Morrissey credits the Active Duty Rehab Unit at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and its collaboration with Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta with saving his limbs from amputation after he was ambushed with an AK-47 in Afghanistan in 2006.   You can hear more of MSG Morrissey's interview here.

LT Joshua Darnell's story isn't all that different from MSG Morrissey.  COL Jacobs asked LT Darnell about his injuries, and he reports he's miles from where he was when he arrived at the Active Duty Rehab Unit.  You can see LT Darnell's story here.

Both stories join more than 610 other warriors' examples of restoration and healing in August, Georgia.  To find out what you can do to support the warrior care mission already underway in our community, check out our website link "How You Can Help."

Computers and Training for Veterans: Collaboration

Since February of 2009, we've been exploring a collaboration with the National Cristina Foundation, a non-profit that is dedicated to supporting people with disabilities, students at risk and disadvantaged persons.  National Cristina Foundation matches computer technology donated from corporations and the public as it comes out of its first place of use to training programs such as ours.

In July of 2008 the Cristina Foundation launched a special initiative with the American Legion in Texas working to provide refurbished computers and access for free computer training to veterans with special needs.  The initiative, Linking Together for Veteran's Futures, in coordination with the CompTIA Educational Foundation's Creating Futures program and the Art for Soldiers Foundation, targets eligible veterans who require IT support, many of whom include returning Iraq and Afghanistan service members.

Representatives from the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project, the Charlie Norwood Iraq and Afghanistan Program, and CompTIA's Educational Foundation met recently to determine how to connect the information technology training and certification with  returning service members looking to pursue careers in information technology.

The next steps will be to identify ways in which donated technology from the National Cristina Foundation and training from CompTIA Educational Foundation can help veterans in Augusta and prepare them for rewarding careers in IT.  The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center is our primary partner for identifying those Iraq and Afghanistan service members who are transitioning out of active duty and would benefit from access to both the technology and the training. 

If you'd like to learn more about this new collaboration, or to support it, contact me at: laurie.ott@csrawwcp.org or (706) 434-1708.

Initiatives Update: Veterans Court, March 2009

Today I was given the privilege of speaking to the Augusta Bar Association with board member The Honorable Doug Barnard, our retired 10th District Congressman.

Judge Jim Blanchard spoke about the Drug Court launched in Richmond County last year, and the program's successes. I was invited to observe this Drug Court a week ago, and I was very impressed with the enthusiasm for sobriety on the part of the participants and the impact treatment options have on those who would otherwise be in the throes of their addictions, or in jail, or worse, dead. This treatment court model is of great interest to our project, as we look at the potential to launch a Veterans Court similar to the program in Buffalo, NY and a few other locations across the country. The idea is to connect veterans who end up in front of a judge with the programs, services and benefits they have already earned through their service. The focus of the court in New York state is treatment, and a team approach to challenges facing veterans.

We are fortunate to have a wonderful VA Medical Center in Augusta (the Charlie Norwood VAMC) and program managers and leadership there interested in exploring how to implement the treatment model court for veterans in our area.

March 27th, the Charlie Norwood VAMC will host the Buffalo judge who started the Veterans Court there, for an all day session to discuss how the program works. The CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project is hosting a meeting on this day to bring judicial and law enforcement leadership together with our VAMC staff and the Buffalo judge to explore implementing this here. This small work group will look at the needs of this generation of returning service members' needs, and veterans and their families needs in transition, and ways to meet those needs in collaboration with the Charlie Norwood VAMC.

From the response today from the Augusta Bar Association, it appears our community is ready to collaborate on this type of initiative, and ensure our veterans get the care they need, when they need it.