MILWAUKEE HOMELESS VETERANS INITIATIVE INC
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Mission Statement
The Milwaukee Homeless Veteran Initiative provides services that enable homeless and at-risk veterans to reach and maintain their highest level of independence. Since 2008, we have helped more than 5,500 veterans and their families in a variety of ways. We fill the gaps that no one else addresses. The need is great and growing. We do outreach to find homeless veterans where they sleep and at daytime shelters, meal sites and other places where the homeless gather. We help them in obtaining benefits, housing, medical care, clothing, toiletries; transportation and other necessities, and furnishing apartments when they do get a place to live. Our Women Veterans Initiative (WOVIN), to reach out to locate and assist the underserved and growing population of female veterans who need help. Our newest program, VetsNet, is a collaborative, holistic approach that works with governmental, veterans and non-profit organizations to offer a one-stop center for veterans and military families.
About This Cause
The Homeless Veterans Initiative began in June 2008 when two members of the Milwaukee chapter of Veterans of Peace began interviewing homeless veterans at a daytime shelter in Milwaukee, to find out what kinds of help they needed. It began by giving bus tickets to homeless veterans to help them to get to appointments, and walking them through the process of qualifying for health care and other benefits. Next came early morning outreach to find homeless vets where they sleep, in parks, in abandoned buildings, under bridges. In becoming advocates for those who were at a disadvantage in navigating the bureaucracy of the VA we earned a reputation for being people the veterans could trust and count on. The program has grown rapidly as we have identified and worked to meet the needs of the 200 to 300 homeless veterans in Milwaukee and another 5,500 identified as at-risk. We started the first food pantry for veterans in Wisconsin and operated it for three years until a church near the VA Hospital agreed to take it over in 2013. Since Aug. 1, 2012 we have operated as a new, independent organization, Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative, Inc., a nonstock, nonprofit corporation recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt charitable organization. Donations are tax deductible. We are now focused on core programs which fill gaps and provide services no other organization does -- an expanded veterans outreach program and our home support program to furnish rooms and apartments for veterans when they finally do get a place to live. Most of them have nothing and no resources, so we provide the furniture, kitchen and household items, toiletries and other necessities to begin their new lives. We also operate an emergency food pantry to serve veterans in transition or crisis, who need immediate help but cannot access regular food bank or nutrition programs. In 2014 we launched two new programs, a Women Veterans Initiative (WOVIN) to locate and help the growing, underserved population of female veterans, and a follow-up wellness assessment program, working with a local university, to visit the more than 1,000 veterans we have moved into housing, assess their needs, and provide other assistance they may need to continue to live independently. In 2015 we served more than 1,000 veterans and their families, providing services that no other organization offers. Here are some outcomes: • In 2015 we moved 343 veterans into new living spaces and provided food, furniture and household goods valued at more than $366,000. • In 2015 we made 967 food deliveries to veterans and their families. • In 2015 we provided 2,455 bus tickets to veterans for medical appointments and job interviews • In 2015, we distributed 2,220 outreach packets with toiletries and other necessities to homeless veterans and civilians • MHVI has assisted well over 100 veterans to attain benefits. In 2016 we are launching a new initiative, the Wisconsin Veterans Network, or VetsNet, that will expand the number of veterans we can serve and the services we can offer. It is a collaborative, one-stop center for veterans and their families in crisis. We will help anyone who served in the military in any capacity, and their families, with no bureaucratic restrictions, Catch-22s or red tape. If you wore the uniform, we will help, whether active duty, Reserves or National Guard; stateside or overseas; front lines or in the rear. We don't leave our wounded behind. Started by veterans for veterans, MHVI is run mostly by volunteers, with six paid staff and 60 volunteers, including two staff members who were formerly homeless themselves.