(From left) Jaclyn Paxton serves as jobs developer, and La Trice McBride is a career counselor at the Women Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.

A woman re-entering civilian life after years of military service often has to deal with issues that make it difficult to cope with life. The Long Beach U.S. Veterans Initiative center located at Villages at Cabrillo now has a program specifically designed to address those issues. It’s called the Women Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (WHVRP), and its purpose is to reach out to female veterans with the comprehensive services that they need in order to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle and have stable housing.
“We are finding that the needs and issues of female veterans are different than the needs and issues of male veterans,” said Jaclyn Paxton, WHVRP jobs developer. “The Veterans Administration has realized this and has established women’s clinics and other programs specifically designed to address the needs of female veterans.”
Paxton, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1999 to 2007, noted that in recent years the awareness of military sexual trauma (MST) has greatly increased, and often that is a part of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced by many combat veterans. Paxton defined sexual trauma as unwanted physical contact, sexual assault, and rape. “The PTSD and MST can lay dormant for a long while until something triggers it,” Paxton said. She explained that when either or both of those conditions surfaces in a woman’s emotions, she may have an extremely difficult time dealing with even the minor everyday challenges of life.
La Trice McBride, WHVRP career counselor, elaborated. “Many women veterans don’t even realize that they are suffering with PTSD and/or MST,” she said. “They are in denial. As women, we tend to stuff traumatic experiences inside of us and just hope that they will go away, but eventually the pain just boils over.”
McBride spent 12 years in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged as a disabled veteran in 1997. “When I was in the Army, I was used to the military paying all my bills,” she said. “That included housing, food, and utilities, but when I was discharged and I had to start paying those bills myself, I experienced culture shock.”
She added that for some female veterans, just the shock of re-entering civilian life feels like too much to handle. When that is added to PTSD or MST, coping with life can seem like an impossible task. “My job is to build up the self-confidence of female veterans, guide them in a career that is suited for them, and teach them that they can overcome obstacles,” she said.
McBride stressed that work performance required by the military far exceeds work performance required by civilian employers. “The female veterans have to tap into that and communicate that to employers,” she said. “They need to know how to use the skills and the work ethic they learned in the military to get a civilian job and keep that job. They need to show an employer that they are honest, dependable, hard-working and willing to do what the boss says.”
Paxton added that when assisting female veterans, the WHVRP can help with transportation to and from work, clothing needs, haircuts and makeup. “As a job developer, I will meet with them to discuss their job skills and find out what kind of a job they would like to have,” Paxton noted. “After that, we might work up a résumé, arrange for the woman to get vocational training, or talk to a career counselor, depending on her specific needs.”
Paxton stressed that if U.S. Veterans Initiative does not have the resource or program necessary to meet a female veteran’s needs, the organization will refer the woman to the agency that has that resource or program. “We are a one-stop resource center so that the female veteran does not have to take it upon herself to search for the agency or organization that will be able to meet her specific needs,” Paxton explained. “All a female veteran has to do is come to us. If we can’t help her, we will find the organization that can help her.”
Paxton noted that trying to find affordable housing, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, counseling and/or vocational training can seem impossible to a woman dealing with PTSD or MST, but U.S. Veterans Initiative greatly simplifies the process by finding the program best suited to meet a female veteran’s needs.
“We do provide things like transitional housing, counseling and other supportive services,” Paxton said. “We give the women a stable environment to help them get back on their feet. Once they are built back up, they can regain their independence and go out and achieve the goals they have set for themselves.”
Paxton said that female veterans who need the help U.S. Vets provides can just show up or they can phone prior to going to the center. “We do outreach through the V.A. hospitals, women’s shelters and other places where female veterans might go for assistance,” she said. “We try to get our name out there as much as we can.”
In Long Beach, U.S. Veterans Initiative is located at 2001 River Ave. For more information, go to usvetsinc.org or call (562) 388-7800.

This article is part of a Signal Tribune series detailing some of the local U.S. Veterans Initiative programs.

For the kids
• My mom always made a great but inexpensive Valentine’s Day treat for us. She would take construction paper and cut a big heart out of it (about 8×10 inches). Then she would staple the edges together and write our names and an “I love you” on the outside. Then she would fill the heart with candy, purchased on clearance after Christmas. It was very inexpensive, but we loved it!
• Have a Valentine’s Day treasure hunt. Leave little notes around with the last one leading back to the kitchen table with a heart full of candy.
• Make heart-shaped Valentine cookies, and cut the kids (or hubby’s) sandwiches with a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make heart sandwiches. Add a few Valentine’s chocolates and put a note in red with big hearts on their napkins.
• Serve anything red for the day. Serve red Jell-o, red pudding, red apples, toast with strawberry jelly, tomato soup, red applesauce, red Kool-aid, strawberry milk, or red-frosted cookies. Use powered food coloring from the cake store to get the deepest shade of red. Leave sticks of red gum in their Valentine’s Day cards.
• Make hearts out of chocolate chips in each of their pancakes.

For your honey
• Make a treasure hunt for your spouse. Start by mailing or e-mailing them the first clue. Then leave clues all over the house, yard, car or their office telling them where to find the next clue. End the hunt by making a picnic in the back yard or going to a park for a picnic. Use your imagination, and have fun. The simple things are the ones people remember.
• Go to a bookstore together, enjoy the silence and browse. Get a cup of coffee and make a date of it.
• Celebrate Valentine’s Day after Valentine’s Day when everything is half off.
• Mail a love letter to your spouse’s work.
• Send your spouse a sexy email message.
• Leave “why I love you” messages all over the house. Buy a package of the cheap Valentines. Leave a message on each one and hide them all over the house for your honey. They will get to enjoy the gift for months!
• Use lipstick to make hearts and love notes on the rear-view mirror, car windows, bathroom mirror or windows of the house. Leave a kiss on their napkin for lunch or dinner.
• Make a bunch of hearts out of construction paper. Put a love note on each one. Paste them all over the front door or car before your spouse or kids come home from work.
• If you don’t have money to go out, have a picnic on the floor. Use some candles and lay a soft blanket on the floor. Put on some soft music and have a romantic Valentine’s dinner on the floor. Use some white Christmas lights for additional romantic lighting.

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Greg McCormack is the site director for the United States Veterans Initiative facility in Long Beach, which provides housing and services to more than 550 veterans each night.

Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer

Military veterans dealing with joblessness, hunger, substance abuse and even homelessness have a place to which they can turn in Long Beach. It’s the U.S. Vets center, which is located at the Villages at Cabrillo Housing.
“Our mission is to provide assistance to any struggling veterans. We are here to help them in any way we can,” said Greg McCormack, site director for the U.S. Vets facility in Long Beach. He explained that the help comes in the form of housing, employment assistance, case management and counseling that helps the men and women deal with issues that are plaguing them.
U.S. Vets, a nonprofit organization, was founded 18 years ago in Inglewood, and it has operated the facility in Villages at Cabrillo for about 12 years. The organization maintains 12 similar centers across the United States.
“We provide programs to veterans who are homeless or who are at risk of homelessness,” McCormack noted. “The programs are at no cost to them and fully supported by our organization.”
He explained that U.S. Vets gives struggling veterans a free place to live in dormitory housing, meals, clothing, and other forms of assistance to help them get back on their feet. “Once a veteran goes through our program and establishes an income either by work or veterans benefits or disability income, then they have the opportunity to stay here at Villages at Cabrillo,” McCormack said. “They would continue to live here but on their own by renting a room in our transitional and supportive housing.” That usually means having their own bedroom in a house shared with other vets.
According to McCormack, one of the requirements for staying in the transitional housing is that the vets maintain a clean and sober lifestyle. “That requirement really helps those vets who want to stay away from drug and/or alcohol abuse but are having a hard time doing that on their own,” he said, explaining that staying drug- and alcohol-free for a long period of time is key to stabilizing the vets so that later they won’t be drawn back into a self-destructive lifestyle.
Many veterans come to U.S. Vets with nothing but backpacks on their backs. “They have exhausted all their resources and are ready to make a change,” McCormack said. “We can get them right into stable housing, and that alone is a major step toward overcoming obstacles and achieving goals.”
McCormack explained that the U.S. Vets assistance is available to veterans who are homeless or at risk for being homeless. The organization has two specialized entry programs for vets when they are first accepted into the facility.
“We have a work re-entry program called Veterans in Progress, or VIP. It’s for male veterans who want to go back to work,” McCormack said. “Every year, we put close to a hundred veterans back into full-time employment through that program.”
He explained that VIP staff look at a veterans’ work history and skill sets, and then they map out a strategy that will make them employable. Sometimes that includes enrolling them in a vocational school. According to McCormack, the VIP program gives up to 75 men a place to live during their job training.
“U.S. Vets also has the Advanced Women’s Program for female veterans. It is one of the largest programs for homeless female veterans in the country,” McCormack said. He explained that the program provides housing and other assistance to 30 women who move into other U.S. Vets programs after they become more stable.
Another program is called the Social Independent Living Skills (SILS) program. It provides guidance and assistance to disabled veterans. “We have 32 beds available in SILS, and it’s primarily for older, disabled veterans who have a pension or disability income but have great difficulty establishing consistent housing,” McCormack said, adding that after a transitional period, U.S. Vets helps them get into affordable housing.
McCormack noted that another program started about three years ago aims at helping younger veterans whose issues and barriers are different than those of older veterans. “We opened the program specifically for the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have symptoms of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” McCormack said. “We currently have about 20 veterans in that program, but we believe we are going to be seeing an increasing need to help vets with those symptoms in the coming years.”
The Long Beach U.S Vets center is located at 2001 River Ave. For more information, go to usvetsinc.org or call (562) 388-7800.

In the upcoming weeks, the Signal Tribune will be running a series of articles detailing some of the local U.S. Vets programs.

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