On October 21st, 2015 a group of students from SIATech Boyle Heights visited the Volunteers of America facility in Skid Row. They were greeted by the director, Jason Corrasco, and were granted a tour of the center as well as a closing Q&A session with team members and clients.
The VSC is a services program for homeless veterans. Its purpose and goal is to assist homeless veterans in stabilizing themselves after transition to civilian life has become overwhelming and challenging. Through various services such as AA/NA support groups, mental health therapy, showers, laundry, case management, classes and services to assist with benefits, job resources, housing, financial planning, computer skills training and lab, legal aid, relapse prevention, anger management, process groups, education and help with HIV/AIDS, TB, and Hepatitis, and relearning life skills veterans are able to work towards readjusting to civilian life.
Students received an inside look into the daily roles and responsibilities different staff members carry in relation to the health field. The following testimonial will provide one of our attendee’s reactions and thoughts about her visit to VOA- Skid Row:
‘The purpose of writing this is to get people’s attention on what I learned about homelessness through our school’s Health Pathway Career trip to Skid Row. It is estimated that on any given night as many as 58,000 people experience homelessness in the Los Angeles County. Over 190,000 people will not have somewhere to sleep this year. More than 30 % of those people will be Military Veterans. Why is there a big population of Military Homeless Veterans in LA? I learned that many veterans that serve our country come back with mental health problems, serious injuries, some even end of losing their family and some end up addicted to drugs and alcoholic so places like the Volunteers of America exist to help them out.