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>> Funding for the

"Long Island Business Report"

has been provided by...

The Rauch Foundation

and by the JPB Foundation

and the Ford Foundation.

>> Hello, and thanks for

joining us.

I'm Jim Paymar with the

"Long Island Business Report."

Suffolk County has the highest

number of veterans

in New York state,

estimated to be 90,000.

And Nassau County isn't far

behind with an estimated 75,000.

When they return home from

combat zones like Vietnam, Iraq,

or Afghanistan and confront the

fast-paced lifestyle and high

cost of living on Long Island,

there are often very difficult

challenges.

As part of our ongoing reporting

initiative "Chasing the Dream:

Poverty and Opportunity in

America," we're discussing the

tough issues facing

Long Island's vets.

And joining me is Shannon Boyle,

executive director

of New Ground, an agency

committed to educating and

empowering vets; and

Tom Ronayne, director of the

Suffolk County Veterans Service

Agency and a veteran himself.

Shannon and Tom, thank you so

much for being with us today.

You know, we've got a lot of

vets still coming in from

overseas.

The conflicts are not over in

the Middle East.

Tom, what are the big challenges

that you see facing the vets as

they come back

to a place like Long Island?

>> Well, I think as you alluded

to in your opening, probably the

most significant challenge that

veterans confront when they

return to Long Island

is our cost of living.

Employability challenges,

workplace issues.

Reassimilating, reintegrating

into our community has proven to

be a tremendous challenge.

I would say perhaps selfishly

that we are very fortunate on

Long Island, both Suffolk and

Nassau counties, to have

available for our veterans many,

many services --

many, many providers, partners

in the community.

We as a government certainly

have a responsibility, but we at

no time would we be able to

accomplish this mission

ourselves.

We rely on the support of our

partners in the community to

effectively serve these

returning veterans and their

families.

The families are critically

important to this equation.

>> And as we agree, it's tough

coming back to a very, very

high-cost environment like

Long Island, and oftentimes,

Shannon, some of the vets fall

through the cracks.

They fall into poverty.

They even fall into

homelessness, and that's where

New Ground comes in.

What do you see in your offices?

>> We see many veterans of all

ages coming in from different

walks of life.

Many, when they went into the

service, they had

a high school diploma.

Some of the older veterans

actually earned their diploma

when they were in the service.

And now coming out, they don't

have the education background

beyond high school that might

help them land the higher-paying

jobs to be able to afford

housing and food and all the

other essential basic costs of

living.

>> But in the service, aren't

you receiving -- a lot of vets,

anyway, you know -- some

very high-level training?

>> There's absolutely wonderful

training that our returning

military are coming into our

communities with.

It's a matter of figuring out

how to match that training and

skill set with the appropriate

job areas.

And that's something that

sometimes the veterans

themselves struggle with, and

then their connections struggle

to help them find employment.

>> Tom, when the vets come back

and they've been on a military

pay grade, you know, whatever

that might be, what do they come

back to?

Does the service just cut them

off once they return?

What kind of income do they

receive?

>> Generally speaking, upon

separation from service, there

is no income.

>> Nothing?

>> There is nothing.

>> Nothing at all?

>> And the services and VA,

certainly in concert with our

agency, have vastly improved

our transitional supportive

services to provide awareness

prior to separation from service

that these challenges will be

upon them in short order.

>> But how do you drop a guy

who's just spent a tour, a

couple tours in Iraq or

Afghanistan, you know, back

into a place like Syosset

and just expect him to survive?

>> Yeah. Well, I think to that

point, and I'll expand on

that --

Long Island as a region, while

we boast the largest veteran

population in the state of

New York, we have virtually no

actual military infrastructure.

Many of our returning service

members across the nation, upon

return home, are returning to a

Fort Hood or a Fort Bliss,

a Eustis, a Riley, a Jackson,

and --

>> We don't have that here.

>> We don't have that.

And to further compound it,

a very significant portion of

the veterans who return home to

Long Island are actually

National Guard and Reserve

forces.

They're not traditional

active duty.

And that puts them, I believe,

at a slightly further

disadvantage because these are

folks who tend to be slightly

older than our traditional

active-duty forces.

These are folks who tend to

have, prior to deployment, have

had professions and careers,

many of them small-business

owners.

They also have many of the

responsibilities that our

active-duty counterparts

don't have to be concerned with,

and those would be things like

a profession or a career, a

business, employees,

a family, a mortgage,

car payments, all those

responsibilities that we assume

are a part of our day-to-day

life.

When these service members are

separated from that world, from

that environment, those

challenges really amplify.

>> I can imagine.

It must be almost impossible to

kind of connect it all

once you get back 'cause

everything is kind of regimented

and taken care of you when

you're overseas.

And then when you come back,

all of a sudden, it's all on

your back.

>> Yes.

>> And what happens to...

You mentioned family.

Shannon, what happens to

families?

Because you deal with families

as well at New Ground.

>> Yes, we work with families

that are veteran-headed

households in addition to single

veterans.

And the challenges are

compounded when you have

children and a spouse and you're

trying to survive on a certain

income.

We do a tremendous amount of

work in areas of employment

readiness and even finding

employment -- how to put

together a résumé, how to take

that training and skill set

that's been learned in the

military, in their service, and

put it into a résumé that will

be able to get them in front of

the right businesses for a

potential job.

>> How does this impact the

family, the hardships that

they might be confronting?

A vet comes back.

He's, you know, he's seeing

the world in a different way.

Maybe he's seen some awful

things overseas.

He's maybe seen buddies killed.

Maybe he's been injured.

How does this impact on the

entire family?

And how do you deal with the

psychological impact?

>> Living in poverty and being

homeless at any point is

absolutely a trauma that impacts

the children and the parents

significantly and for years.

And it impacts in so many ways.

With families that are homeless,

they're moved from one place to

another.

Many times, children may

be in a different school

district, in a different school

building, two, three, buildings

a year, in a school year, and

every time that child moves,

they lose on average eight weeks

of the traditional learning

time, and so they could lose so

much of the year when they

transition from school to

school.

I think that there is work being

done in the school districts and

certainly at New Ground with the

children to make sure that

they're getting additional

tutoring and resources to make

sure that they're able to bridge

those gaps and continue to

function at the same level as

their permanently housed peers.

>> Tom, what services are really

absolutely necessary for the

returning vets, and beyond

that...

You know, I go back to the

Vietnam War era, and I've never

heard too much good said about

the Department

of Veterans Affairs in terms of

coming through for the veteran.

I mean, everyone "talks a good

game."

Every political leader talks

a good game, but when it comes

down to it, when you talk to the

vets, they don't think that

things are so great.

>> Well, you won't hear a lot

of that from me.

I happen to be a

service-disabled veteran myself,

and I do by choice -- I'm

fortunate to have an option -- I

by choice choose to use VA for

some of my own care.

I will tell you that a

generation ago, I think that

would have been a much more

legitimate position.

VA has...

You know, I tend to say when it

comes to VA...

They are an enormous, they are a

massive organization

second only to the Department of

Defense in terms of size of

governmental agencies within the

United States government.

Any institution...

If you substitute VA with IBM or

General Motors, any institution

with hundreds of thousands of

employees and millions of

facilities and operations and

buildings and personnel, you're

going to have problems.

Unfortunately -- and I think

it's important to be able to

separate one from the other --

I have often said, I have

testified on the record at

legislatures that we never

hear about the miracles that

occur at VA each and every day.

We tend to hear about the

failures.

We tend to hear about the

missteps and the problems, but

VA does, in my view, a largely

good job.

Now, when they are criticized

and it is justifiable, then they

absolutely should be held to a

higher standard.

Northport VA on Long Island...

I think that we are in a unique

situation with regard to

Northport being our what they

call catchment facility.

Northport is regarded by many

people as the jewel in the crown

of the VA.

Northport has reinvented itself

I would go so far as to say

twice post-9/11.

And they have really shifted to

a -- as it always probably

should have been, certainly

should have been -- a

pro-veteran, veteran-centered,

veteran-driven operation.

They have women services

programs specific... They have a

unit within the building

dedicated entirely to the

service of women veterans.

We have an Iraq and Afghanistan

veteran clinic that is unique

and specific to the experiences

and services of our Afghanistan

and other post-9/11 veterans.

So I think VA is doing a much

better job.

I think one of the problems that

we have is that there is an

aversion or there seems to be an

aversion amongst many

veterans -- because of the

anecdotal belief that there are

the problems that we so often

hear about -- many veterans are

not willing to give VA a chance.

And I would encourage them,

please, enroll if nothing else,

enroll at VA and be on record

there.

Allow VA the opportunity, and

I think that in most cases,

you'll be pleasantly surprised.

My agency, to advocate on behalf

of the veteran and to assist in

accessing, gaining entree to VA

and identifying the services

that they are entitled to...

Nobody's being given

anything at VA.

If you have the ability to go to

the VA, you have earned that

through your own blood, sweat,

and tears.

And I think as a nation it is

the very least that we can do.

>> You have a tremendous number

of different services in

Suffolk County, and I'm just

wondering why places like

New Ground are even needed if

these services exist.

I mean, the programs that you

have to help homeless vets,

impoverished vets, helping in

educational training.

Why are you necessary, and how

are you funded?

>> Well, I think that in all

areas where you have

difficulties in our country,

there's the role of the

government in helping, and then

there's the role of the

nonprofits and

the community in helping.

And it goes hand in glove.

And it's necessary because we're

working with unique individuals.

They're not cookie-cutter.

No one's problems or life is

identical to another, and so

you have to have varying

resources and solutions

that can be wrapped around each

individual and match their

needs.

New Ground is funded through a

couple of contracts for services

that we provide, and then

completely privately funded

through some large fundraisers

each year and grant writing.

>> How many organizations like

New Ground are there on

Long Island?

You know, if you don't have the

number on the top of your head,

that's fine.

I'm just wondering if there are

dozens, scores, hundreds.

>> I think that there are a good

number of organizations that are

doing additional work to help

our veterans beyond what the VA

is doing.

>> Like United Way and

Catholic Charities,

groups like --

>> Services for the UnderServed,

yes.

I think that New Ground is very

unique, and so I don't know that

there is anyone out there quite

like us because we are able...

Because of our funding being

primarily private, we're really

able to uniquely meet the needs

of each veteran and absorb

whatever challenges and help

them overcome whatever

boundaries are preventing them

from being successful, being

employed, being permanently

housed and stable.

>> So, I mean, is there a

psychological program that goes

on at New Ground?

>> Yes, all of the services that

are being provided are done by

master-level

licensed social workers.

And our approach is to blend the

concrete work alongside the

clinical work, where we're

meeting the person where they

are and assessing not just what

are the concrete needs that they

have but why.

And you know, what emotionally

is getting in their way?

What psychologically is

getting in their way?

Is there a substance-abuse

history?

Is there some mental illness,

whether from what they may have

experienced in the military or

after?

And addressing all of those

needs.

And the same for the children in

the household and the spouse.

>> Tom, what challenges do you

most confront with veterans

coming back from overseas who've

seen some hard-core warfare over

there?

>> I would say a large portion

of it is transitional -- being

able to reassimilate into the

community.

And I'd like to touch for a

moment on a point that was just

made, where there are a number

of organizations out there, many

of them doing very good work.

The nature of...

By its nature, the provision and

delivery of services to veterans

is a unique field, and I would

encourage anyone, if you are

going to engage an organization,

thoroughly vet them.

New Ground and some of the other

wonderful organizations --

the Long Island Coalition for

the Homeless and United Way and

some of our wonderful partners

out there are doing God's work.

There are always, in a field

where there is an opportunity

for profit, folks who are not

necessarily driven

altruistically toward their end

goal, so I would encourage

you...

Because the end user -- that

veteran and those family

members -- the impact is

enormous, and when New Ground or

even my agency as the

governmental side of the

equation...

It's important for us to respect

that the provision and delivery

of these services to this

population is so important.

One of the things, and I think

this is important...

It is vital that we identify and

acknowledge that we have a great

many veterans who are

experiencing challenges

and be -- whether they are

physical, whether they are

psychological, emotional,

whether they are purely

employment or economic related,

but I want to, to the best of my

ability, dispel a myth that I

think -- and this goes to the

issue of employability.

There is often a public

perception that our returning

service members, our veterans,

are broken -- that when we come

home, that we all share in the,

that these employers need to be

concerned with our --

>> Performance.

>> Performance, our

capabilities --

>> Your abilities, yeah.

>> When in fact, when you drill

down and look at veteran

and a nonveteran, all other

things being equal, that veteran

brings an extraordinary amount

to the equation, and I will tell

any employer who will give me

the opportunity that it is the

veteran employer each and every

time who comes out on the

winning side of that equation.

Veterans are...

We tend to be, certainly our

younger veterans, we possess a

maturity beyond our

chronological age.

We understand discipline,

chain of command.

We understand completion and

fulfillment of mission.

We get up early in the morning.

[ Chuckles ]

You know, there are so many

attributes that we bring to

an employment situation, and I

would just encourage employers,

give that veteran the

opportunity.

Hear him out. Hear her out.

Because in the end, I will

assure you that your business

will come out on the better side

of that relationship.

>> Shannon, do you feel

the same thing?

>> Absolutely. Yeah.

You know, things that we try to

capture in a résumé that can be

hard is, you know, veterans are

coming back with leadership

skills, creative.

You know, real problem solvers.

They're good under pressure.

They can handle difficult

situations.

They can think on their feet.

Those are things that you

don't... you can't learn in

college, necessarily.

And it's a true asset that

they're bringing to the table.

>> Well, do we have any metrics

that we can say,

"X number of veterans returned

to Long Island, and 90%

of them go back into the job

force, and 80% of those are

very successful in the companies

that they join"?

I mean, do we have any

statistical information that you

can share with us?

>> I don't have hard numbers,

but I will tell you that up

until 2015, historically,

veterans have always been

employed in numbers greater than

the general population.

2015, that reversed itself, and

for the first time as a nation,

we found veterans unemployed in

larger numbers as a percentage

of their population, which to me

is troubling, and I think given

the reliance that the nation has

had in the prosecution of our

post-9/11 wars on our

National Guard and our Reserve

elements, multiple deployments,

and some of the other factors,

I think those all feed into

the greater challenges with

regard to employability.

And --

>> And I think that what...

Some of the statistics out

there do show that the

percentage of unemployed

veterans for post-9/11 veterans

is higher than before.

And so --

>> Why is that?

>> I'm not sure.

>> Yeah.

>> Again, I think in part --

at least in part, it goes back

to the employers' perception

that these may not be people

that I'm willing to bring

on board.

Once again, not to continue, not

to keep repeating myself, but

the reliance on

the National Guard and Reserve

forces, and given that we do not

have an active-duty presence on

Long Island -- it's

predominantly National Guard and

Reserve -- there is also a

concern on the part of employers

that when I bring you, as a

Guardsman or Reservist,

into my small business,

that I run the risk of business

interruption when you are called

to duty, when you are activated,

and you have to leave my

three-, four-, five-, six-man

business.

That represents a genuine

disruption, and many employers

are unwilling to take on

that risk.

There are ways to mediate that.

There are ways to address the

frequency and the nature and the

duration of deployments.

There are remedies for many of

these concerns, but I think

awareness and education are

perhaps lacking in the

community, and that's...

We're very fortunate.

My county executive,

Steve Bellone, happens to be an

Army veteran himself.

Steve gets it.

>> Yeah, I know he does.

>> Steve gets it, and he's been

extraordinarily supportive of

myself and my agency, and he

allows us to be proactive and to

be innovative and to spend time

in the community, as he does,

sharing this information and

trying to get the word out

to better serve the folks that

we work for.

>> Shannon, besides helping the

veterans, do you also deal with

the spouses and the children

themselves?

Do they need counseling?

And how do you bring families

together so that they don't

disintegrate, which causes even

greater problems?

>> Yes, we work with the entire

family unit, so when a family

comes into our program, we do a

full assessment for the spouses,

you know, both parents, as well

as the children

in the household.

And we assess where they are

financially, emotionally,

educationally.

We work with the children to

make sure that they're on track

in school, and provide tutoring

and a reading program to bring

them up to speed if needed or

just to keep them on track.

And we also focus on helping

them determine where they want

to go after high school,

what's their plan.

And that's a big part of what

New Ground does, which is to

break the cycle of homelessness.

We want to help the family

that's currently in need but

then also make sure that the

next generation is going to be

successful and not find

themselves in the same position.

>> And how long might a family

or a serviceman be involved with

New Ground?

>> It's a three- to five-year

program, so --

>> Oh, it's that long?

>> Yes, yes. Yeah.

We work with the adults to go

back to school, so they may do

an associate's degree or a

bachelor's degree or a

vocational program, and they're

doing that part-time while

they're also working and raising

their children.

So it takes a few years.

>> And the government does help

on the education front, though,

right?

>> Yes.

>> There's still a "GI Bill,"

kind of?

>> Yeah, and the post-9/11

GI Bill is actually a wonderful

program.

>> Exceptional.

>> It was a

well-thought-through,

well-implemented program that

provides tremendous opportunity

for many of these veterans.

>> Let me interrupt because we

don't have too much time left.

What does...

We've got four branches of

service?

>> Five.

>> Five, with the Coast Guard?

[ Chuckles ] Okay.

What are they doing in terms of

helping the veterans transition

from active duty to becoming

a civilian?

>> The services, across the

board, all five services, have

improved their participation in

pre-separation trainings,

briefings, reintegration

programs.

Some of them are stronger than

others.

One very popular program is

known as Yellow Ribbon,

where there are episodic --

30, 90, and 180 days out from

separation, where the service

brings you back in, and they

conduct briefings.

They conduct employment

seminars.

They conduct job fairs.

Linkage with community services,

whether they be private sector,

not for profit, or governmental,

is also key to success.

And we need for these family

members and the veterans to

understand where the resources

are that they can bring to bear

to best serve their needs.

>> Shannon, are things from your

point of view getting better,

worse?

Are you seeing more faces come

through the door?

>> I think that they're

absolutely,

on Long Island, improving.

And a program that started a few

years ago, the HUD-VASH program,

Veterans Administration

Supportive Housing program,

did a tremendous amount towards

ending veteran homelessness

on Long Island.

And that has given veteran

families and individual veterans

the opportunity to secure

housing at a rate that they can

afford with a voucher.

And that has done a tremendous

amount of good to get the family

where they need to be as far as

a stable place to live.

A lot of times then you need

wraparound services that really

can help the family stay there

and maintain their rent and move

forward and create a savings and

build the support networks

that they need.

>> We are out of time.

One last question -- got like 10

seconds.

But given the fact that we have

a new administration, do you

think that there's going to be

the same level of support

for veterans returning home?

We're talking about a lot of

cutbacks in a lot of areas.

Think this is one that'll be

sustained?

>> I'm optimistic.

I hope that as we

make every effort to, each day,

bring services to our veterans,

I'm optimistic that we'll see

improvements.

The new administration is saying

that they've got programs

in the pipeline.

I suppose it's a bit too early

to tell.

>> Okay. All right.

Well, thank you so much, Shannon

and Tom, for being with us

today.

That wraps up our conversation

about veterans on Long Island.

For more on the

"Long Island Business Report,"

log on to our website.

You can also find us on

Facebook and join the

conversation on Twitter.

I'm Jim Paymar.

Thank you for joining us

for this edition of the

"Long Island Business Report."

And we'll see you next time.

>> Funding for the

"Long Island Business Report"

has been provided by...

The Rauch Foundation

and by the JPB Foundation

and the Ford Foundation.

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