- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

Valley Bank.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - All right, folks.

Our veterans.

We are used to saying, "Thank you for your service."

Sounds great.

It's important, not nearly enough.

And recently, in that spirit, I attended with a group of amazing people, this Veterans Health Fair.

Veterans Health Fair took place in Branch Brook Park and my hometown of Newark, New Jersey.

It was put together by the Veterans Foundation of America, Feeding Our Heroes Organization sponsored by Braven Health.

Let me tell you what was there.

There are health screenings.

Health screenings around a whole range of issues that are impacting our veterans.

Cardiovascular screening, diabetes assessments, mental health resources, right?

Food insecurity issues dealt with trying to get our veterans, the food they need, the healthy food they need.

Who do we talk to?

Who are you about to see in this half hour?

Veterans, advocates for our veteran community, public health officials, government officials, a whole range of folks who care about our veterans.

And it goes beyond rhetoric.

It goes to what they really need, particularly when it comes to healthcare.

Let's check it out.

- (Uplifting music) - We kick off the program with Colonel Jeff Cantor, who's the CEO of the New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

Good to see you, Colonel.

- Great to see you, Steve.

- Talk about this event.

- Yeah, so this was put on by Braven Health.

So Braven came together at a strategy meeting and decided that it's really important to provide access to quality healthcare for the veterans community.

And so we just mobilized and made sure that we could get all the resource partners involved and get some of the strategic partners involved to make sure we're giving quality access of healthcare to the veterans community.

- You're talking about HIV testing, cardiovascular asthma, prostate cancer screenings, mental health resources.

Why mental health in there?

- Well, it's really important, right?

So what's happening a lot in the veterans community is a lot of patients veterans are suffering with PTSD, anxiety, depression as a result of PTSD and some of the exposures that they've seen during their service.

So what we're trying to do is provide resources for them so that they can get the access to the care that they need.

Whether it be physical health, mental health, cardiovascular health, pulmonology health, HIV, any type of healthcare, we wanna provide them access to.

- There's another area that, you know, when I was going over the material with our producers, I looked and I saw, mobile mammograms.

There are a significant number of female veterans here.

- So it's the largest- - And male.

- Yeah, absolutely.

But it's interesting you bring that up because female veterans are the largest growing group of veterans in the state of New Jersey.

And unfortunately, the VA does not have a mammogram machine in the state of New Jersey.

- Does not?

- Does not.

So what we're trying to do is meet an unmet medical need by providing those resources like free mammogram services for female veterans so that they can get the care that they need.

And we're willing to give that information to them so they can take it to the VA and get the continuity of care or come to a Braven salute type program and they can get the care in the community where they live.

- Veterans watching right now, looking for resources, not knowing exactly where to go.

Access is challenging.

Is there one place you believe, Colonel, they should be going?

- So there is one, there's actually two places.

- Go ahead, we'll put up the website so you talk about it.

- So the first one is TheVFA.org.

That's the Veterans Foundation of America.

There's a number of resources for mental health and physical health.

- And by the way, The Veterans Foundation of America, one of the co-sponsors of the event, along with Feeding Our Heroes.

- That is correct, yeah.

Feeding Our Heroes and Veterans Foundation of America, they were the co-leads that put on this great event.

And they can also go to WarriorPortal.com.

- [Steve] What is it again?

- WarriorPortal.com.

And that's a one-stop shop for all things veteran.

If they need any information on claims support, mental health support, how to find their closest VA facility, all that's on there.

It's a one-stop shop for veterans.

- Assemblywoman, today is so important because?

- Because when we have affairs like this, it's an opportunity to get the veterans to come out to see what kind of support they can get to different organizations and the different committees and the different health services that they might need.

Having affairs like this, we try to do a lot of these throughout the state of New Jersey to make sure we reach out to all the veterans, men and women, because sometimes they're lacking of services that they don't know that they can get.

And this is one of the ways that we can reach out to them.

- Tell us what Feeding Our Heroes is and why today.

- Okay, today's a big event for us.

This is the kickoff of 10 events from Bergen County all the way down to Burlington County.

So we did this last year and it just grew to this.

We had 12 tables set up last year.

Now we have over 50 tables.

People just wanted to join in with us.

- Tell folks what Feeding Our Heroes is.

- So we go around and we feed the veterans.

Veterans are first responders.

Okay?

So we don't want anyone to go hungry.

And there's a lot of veterans out there that served for our freedom, and they're going hungry on a daily basis.

So Guy again called me up, he's doing it on the West Coast.

He says, "Mike, you gotta be the ambassador on the East Coast and I need you to do this in a big way."

And when I do things, I do it really big.

- How would a veteran communicate with Feeding Our Heroes?

Tell them, we'll put the website up right now and what specific service could they get, even if they're watching right now, but they're not here at Branch Brook Park.

- So yeah, it's FeedingOurHeroes.org.

You can go on there.

We have a volunteer list up there.

You can sign up.

And how they get ahold of us is just go on the website.

Now, the services, mortgages for veterans, mental health awareness, big thing in the veteran community, right?

So we bring in all kind of tables.

Now we've added another health piece.

You can come here, get your blood pressure, pulmonology tests, anything you want.

We're doing a mammography test for women.

It's in the veterans community, they don't offer mammographies, right?

But as you can look around here, we got employment for the veterans.

We have all kind of service, the Veterans Chamber of Commerce, you know, Latino veterans.

We bring everybody in here in one room.

So all you gotta do is come here, see all this sign up and you get a great meal from Feeding Our Heroes.

'cause that's what we do.

We start early in the morning.

We bring a fresh food out here and we feed everybody.

- I know personally know about the food insecurities with veterans.

- Describe it.

What does it really mean?

- So you know, when the military veterans go on deployment, the people at home are left, right?

They come back.

But you still gotta feed those veterans who come back.

And also the families.

So we feed all the families, we feed the veterans who have maybe food insecurities.

We also feed those individuals who need food, you know?

And it's not easy being a military veteran, especially after deployment, but also the families who are waiting for this deployment to end.

My father had three hardship tours, one in Vietnam, one in Laos, one in Korea.

So I understand the uncertainty, I understand the fear, and you know, have a good food is always a blessing.

- I'll tell you who's here today is some terrific veterans who served our country, including Lucy Del Gaudio, who is with the YWCA of Northern New Jersey.

- Northern New Jersey, yes.

- And you served where?

- I served in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, US Army, eight years, active in reserves.

- Thank you for your service.

- [Lucy] Thank you.

- And tell us about your involvement connection here.

- Sure.

So I'm with the YWCA Northern New Jersey, our Operation Sisterhood program.

It's a program that- - Operation Sisterhood.

Talk about that sister.

- So Operation Sisterhood helps women veterans transition back into civilian life through professional development, workforce development, but also clinical and trauma-informed care for women who have experienced any type of trauma, why they served in the military.

- Talk about that.

We'll make it clear to those of us who have never served.

When you use the word "trauma" and you're talking about veterans, particularly women who are veterans.

Help us understand, Lucy, what that means.

- So women in the military, we've had a rash of women who either get sexually harassed or sexually assaulted while serving in the military.

So we help them is if they don't wanna go to the VA because they don't feel safe, we give them that safe space to get the clinical services that they need.

That one-on-one, that connection, because women have faced, men have faced well.

So, you know, sexual harassment, sexual assault doesn't discriminate.

So it basically affects many men and women who have served in the military.

- Lucy, after your service, when you came back, how hard was it for you to quote unquote "transition"?

- It was actually very, very hard.

I transitioned in the '90s where services like the ones that are here today weren't around, so- - You mean an event like this wasn't around- - An event like this was not around.

I was partially homeless.

I did the couch surfing thing with my infant son.

And it was difficult to navigate the system.

It was by meeting someone who mentored me and saw the potential and told me to bring out my military experience and service.

- Explain what that means.

So basically, you know, it was hard.

I couldn't transition.

I didn't know how to take my skills from the military and transfer them into- - Such as?

- Like, you know, I was a morse code interceptor.

So the typing, that administrative- - Being a leader.

- Being a leader.

And that's the number one.

And that's what happens to us after we've experienced some such of trauma.

We forget that we were built to be leaders and how do we recreate and find that leadership in us?

- That's wonderful.

Listen, thank you for your service.

Thank you for being here.

- I appreciate it.

- We're here with Orlando Miranda, who is the president of the Latino Veterans of New Jersey.

So good to have you with us, Orlando.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Tell us about the organization.

We'll put up the website right now.

- Absolutely.

So Latino Veterans of New Jersey was created in order for us to reintegrate our veterans into society.

We provide a lot of networking and social events to help them transition out of the service.

- Orlando, from your perspective, are there any unique challenges that Latino veterans face that are important for everyone else to understand?

- It's a very good question.

They are, they're very unique.

As a Latino veteran myself, I find that we're very proud.

We're very proud, and we're afraid of asking for help.

Our mission is to reach out to them and connect with our veterans and help them and encourage to continue, be out there, continue working with the society and serving within their communities.

- The New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is responsible for providing state delivered veterans benefits, programs and services for garden state service members, veterans, and their families.

- Such as?

- Such as we have a veteran service office in each of our 21 counties.

We operate three long-term care facilities at Paramus, Menlo Park, and Vineland, two transitional housing facilities in north and south New Jersey.

We operate the busiest state-run veteran cemetery in the United States.

And right now, under the leadership of Governor Murphy, we're working to bring veteran homelessness to functional zero in the state of New Jersey.

- Talk to us, Vincent.

Talk about why a health trail like this is so important.

- Well, because we're all in this together and organizations like Feeding Our Heroes who have been working to raise awareness- - One of the co-sponsors of today.

- That's correct.

Our organizations that are here today are part of a collective effort to ensure that Garden State heroes have access to the benefits, whether they be local, state, or federal, that they have earned through their service.

And in my role at the state, our job is to make sure those veterans know about those resources, can speak to credentialed individuals, to connect them to those resources, and we help them navigate that process.

- We don't do nearly enough for our veterans, do we?

We just don't do nearly enough.

- We don't, we absolutely don't.

- We talk about it.

- Yeah, we do.

I mean, because I think it's the same thing.

You know, we talk about how wonderful, you know, democracy is, the constitution.

We love the values, the principles.

Executing it is not as easy.

- You mean the work?

(laughs) - As easy as it is writing it on paper.

So we'll say, "We'll help veterans around homelessness.

We'll help veterans get jobs, we'll help veterans get access to healthcare."

I mean, it is a good intention, but making it happen seems to be a little harder than actually talking about it.

- Talk about the city of Newark and the specific services that will be provided for veterans.

We'll put up the website as well.

- Yeah, I mean, you know, we have a place in City Hall for Veterans.

They can come right there in office right there in city hall that deals with veterans benefits, deals with veteran housing, deals with veteran homelessness, deals with the abundant amount of issues that exist in communities and the state around homelessness and veterans, excuse me.

So it's important for people that are in Newark and around Newark to come into City Hall and visit us there on the first floor of City Hall and get the services that we provide.

- We are honored to be joined by Francisco Cortes, president, New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

Francisco, so good to have you with us.

- Thank you, sir.

Such an honor to be with you.

- Tell us your connection to the event.

- So today, I'm honored to be here, one, as an Army veteran myself, but seven years ago- - Thank you for your service, sir.

- I appreciate it.

Seven years ago, we started the New Jersey State Veteran Chamber of Commerce, myself and Colonel Cantor to assist other veteran business owners grow their businesses or even military personnel that are transitioning out of the military and don't know how to transfer their skills into meaningful business practices.

But today we're excited because all of these community partners came together with one mission to support brave men and women who lack health services.

So as you see here, it's incredibly successful.

So many people came together.

We have a mammogram machine outside, Many resources that are not readily available to people are here today.

And we're mostly proud about that today.

- So a message every veteran watching right now.

- You are mission-focused, you've been trained to be the best at what you do.

There's nothing you can't accomplish and you're not alone as well.

New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce is a great resource.

Anything you guys need, come to us and we'll help you grow as well.

- This is your community?

- Yes.

- This is your neighborhood.

- This is Branch Book Park for our veterans.

Talk about this event.- Well, first of all, when we think about our open spaces and we lose sight of what they actually offer, this community center was built with the collaboration of the state and county.

And it's just not a park building.

You see it today transforms into a one-stop hub for veterans to get access to healthcare, to apply for SNAP and benefits, to connect to further employment.

Consistently, we say all the time, we just celebrated a veteran's holiday just recently.

We're good about taking the day off and having picnics with our families, but we forget what the moment is about.

And I think we oftentimes forget that in policy.

And so we're great about supporting the troops in the moment.

We're great about, you know, making sure that our armed forces have what they need in those times of crisis.

But what we're not so great about in this country and in our states is the return of veterans coming home.

So many of them getting displaced if they were away for a long time, so many of them losing their employment because they have taken, you know, a break in service.

And so many right now where the numbers are hovering for homelessness at an extraordinary rate.

- Is it getting worse?

- It's getting worse.

And so, you know, it's a combination of different things when you talk about mental health and accessibility to access to healthcare in an affordable way.

And so... - Food insecurity, - Food insecurity, I mean, it runs the gamut, but it's hyper exposed to an individual who gave the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.

And so there's this real disconnect in the messaging that we have because the proof is not in the pudding for resources and for programming.

- We're talking with Sharon McGreevey, director of Veteran Services at New Jersey Reentry Corporation.

First of all, Sharon, thank you for joining us.

But also, I mean, we've interviewed Jim McGreevey, right?

Who you know.

- My brother.

- Exactly.

And we've talked to Jim for years about New Jersey Reentry Corporation.

In my mind, I'm thinking it's prisoner, ex-offender reentry, it's more than that.

- It is more than- - Talk about that.

- So we help all veterans, whether they're court involved or non-court involved.

So it could be people who are homeless that need to go into transitional housing and that need to get Section Eight housing or HUD-VASH.

So we follow them all the way along until they're in a stable community and they remain stable with healthcare, mental health and their whole, they need to reintegrate.

So we work with that.

We also work with people in the community that need veteran service connected disability.

So we work with them to get them hooked up with the VSO.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold on.

The acronyms.

VSO.

- A Veteran Service Officer.

- Okay, go ahead.

- Right.

So each veteran may have experienced some type of trauma, some type of injury.

And so it's important that veterans file an intensifile and that allows them to hold the date and then they have a whole year to file their Veteran Service disability.

And then we help them with veteran service officers.

And we help them with their doctors and getting them the correct letters and to see them through it.

Because they need the support.

If you've been through a traumatic experience, you need a community of support around you.

So that's why we're here, like linking up the community for veterans.

All veterans court involved are non-court involved or veterans deserve to be supported.

And so we're here to do long-term support.

- Talk about why you're so passionate about this.

- Ah, so my father was a drill instructor in the Marine Corps.

- Absolutely.

- And so he taught us to be passionate, my brother- - Talk about your father's service, because I've talked to Governor McGreevey many times and he's talked about it, but remind people.

- My father was both in the World War II, the end of World War II the peacekeeping force, and in the Korean War.

And the reason he went into the war was his brother, James Edward McGreevey, who my brother is named after.

He was a veteran of World War II but he received the Bronze Star in Saipan.

But on Iwo Jima, he received the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross posthumously.

He was killed on Iwo.

So we learn as a family, the high cost of freedom, the high cost at our soldiers pay, and our Marines pay and our sailors pay.

So we know the cost of war and we know the cost of freedom.

So anything we can do to help a veteran, we feel we're paying back because we know what they had to give.

- Why do you think most people who wanna do more, who want to be helpful to our vets don't know how to do it?

- I think because it's hard to imagine the long shadows of war.

- The long shadows of war, - Right.

So if you are exposed, if you were deployed and you're exposed to a lot of trauma, those shadows are with you when you come back.

And meanwhile, the rest of us are running to the ShopRite.

We're running to pick up the kids- - living our lives.

- We're living our lives, but our brothers, our sisters, our family members, our grandparents, our parents have these long shadows that they're experiencing.

So we really encourage mental health services and we really encourage group support, peer support, because these shadows are with our veterans.

And so they need to share them with other veterans and to be healed from them.

- For you as a long time Newarker as someone who's been on the council for a while, how important are our veterans, A, and B, why are we not giving them what they need?

- Oh, the veterans have always been important too, but I think the lack of services lacks from the federal government for the veterans.

You know, they're cutting out what they can learn and the Pentagon, what can they teach?

What kind of books should they be reading?

The military has served this country well.

And one of the things that mostly is important that I remember the days that we used to do things in Newark with Mayor Sharpe James.

And we used to do, we used to go to all the VFWs and do things.

Your late Uncle Mike had a bottle.

And we used to go to the VFW and Grafton avenue- - [Steve] Member of the state legislature.

- And those were the days that we did more.

It's turned to lack and we need to bring it back.

We don't have a parade.

We don't do a flag ceremony during the Veteran's Day or Memorial Day.

- Anibal have we lost that as Louise talks about, everyone does say, "Thank you for your service."

But the doing, we've been talking about this a lot, which is why this event is so important.

It's doing something, it's action.

Our rhetoric often does not match the reality of our actions.

- Yeah, I think when it comes to veterans, we pay a lot of lip service.

Unfortunately, a lot of our veterans are aging out, right?

You go to the VFWs and a lot of their social platforms and you know, a lot of our World War II veterans, Vietnam veterans, unfortunately, we've lost a number of them.

- [Steve] That's right.

- But like Councilman mentioned, even locally, like we can do a lot more to really highlight the importance of setting up services for veterans and have helping them navigate through the government bureaucracy.

That's usually the hardest part.

- Maya, how tough is it?

We've been talking to so many veterans here, and what I keep thinking about is how do veterans access the services?

We put up the website in Essex County for the services you provide, but isn't that a big challenge, finding the services?

- I think that's our job, right?

As the county, we need to- - And the media's job as well, go ahead.

- And we need to make sure that we understand our population.

So an event like this, making it easy for them to come, for us to have conversations with them, sit down, speak with them, for them to really engage with us as a health department.

And to ask them what is it that they need?

- What are they telling you, Maya?

- I think the biggest thing is, is I think a lot of them don't have transportation, which is why we have our mobile unit, which will go to them.

We're partnering with our veterans facilities.

As flu season comes, we're gonna be providing them COVID, flu vaccines.

We're gonna be also providing sugar checks and blood pressures directly to them through our mobile unit.

- So it's interesting, the mental health piece of this.

We've been talking to some folks about that.

Talk about why that's so important.

- I think veterans who are soldiers, we look at them as our strong population.

And they're the ones that really don't wanna talk about the things that they really have encountered.

And it's our job to make them feel comfortable.

And most of the time, making them feel comfortable is coming to them, letting them be where they're comfortable.

And the community center is a comfortable place.

It's in a park, it's somewhere where people like to be.

It's no pressure.

It's not a clinical setting at all.

So that's why this event and our ability to be at these events and to make sure that we are, is the key for us to engage with these veterans.

- Thank you Maya.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

Valley Bank.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

Kean University.

And by Johnson & Johnson.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by Meadowlands Chamber.

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At Meadowlands Chamber, every day we connect, collaborate and innovate, helping to drive business and economic growth in the greater Meadowlands and New Jersey.

I invite you to visit our Meadowlands Chamber headquarters, an open office facility with access to resources for our members' businesses and networking needs.

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