Delaware’s congressional delegation hosts veteran resource fair

Dover, Del. – Members of Delaware’s congressional delegation met in Dover to host a veteran’s resource fair on the DelTech campus on Monday.

“We got about 40 vendors who are here today to provide information on jobs, housing, health care services that we hope, will improve and make their lives better since they served us,” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester said in an interview with WMDT.

“The more tools in the toolbox, the better,” Branden Zeitler said. Zeitler is the local coordinator for Irreverent Warriors, an organization that focuses on serving veterans’ mental health through comedy.

Several vendors told WMDT that the event enabled them to connect with attendees with the hope that they would share those resources with those who could not attend.

“It’s an amazing event to be able to get together all the resources in one place to be able to have veterans come and receive any care, any information, any kind of support that they may need,” Bryan Clark of the Canines Assisting Service Heroes program. Clark is currently serving in the armed forces.

For the vendors, many of whom are veterans themselves, the event highlighted the benefits of there being a space where veterans can connect.

“We’re here as a resource, but we’re also here because we want to know you,” Jean Dowding said. Dowding is the president of First State Military Women Warriors, a veteran and a realtor. She said being able to have physical spaces allows all veterans to feel seen, including female veterans, veterans with disabilities or veterans who cannot access the internet easily.

“We have a heavily aging population of veterans from Vietnam who have not been properly serviced yet and who do not use the internet and who are not using digital platforms,” Dowding said.

Remarks by Senators Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, Rep. Sarah McBride and VA Wilmington Health Care System Executive Director Thandiwe Nelson-Brooks spoke to the need of connecting veterans to resources that may save their lives. The endeavor of creating a space for veterans to access resources hits personally for Blunt Rochester, whose members of her family served and struggled.

“But my other two uncles almost struggled when they came back,” Blunt Rochester said during her remarks. “They struggled so much that drug addiction was an issue. Mental health was an issue. Housing was an issue, even as a family. Taking family members back in. And so for us three, three of us here. You are important to us. You are our family.”

Blunt Rochester said, especially ahead of celebrating America’s 250th anniversary of independence, it was more important than ever to honor those who have served.

“We had a roundtable prior to the resource fair, and we heard directly that the issues of homelessness are still an issue for our veterans. As is suicide. Prevention is still an issue. Even things like food security, and so it was important for us to have a place where veterans could come and hear, learn, connect and connect the dots,” she told WMDT.

One of the people honored at the fair was veteran Christopher Nichols for his leadership at the Delaware Department of Corrections’ Veterans Treatment Court in Sussex County.

“It’s cliché to say, but you’re not alone,” Nichols said. “One thing that us veterans can say is ‘we’ve done that, we’ve been there,’ and that’s why we can connect. … We’re hoping that the message will be that if you served, you know, key word ‘served’ and you want to be a part of something you want to do better, you want to connect yourself with like-minded individuals, with veterans. You want to not feel alone. You want to be able to find a job. You want to be able to find purpose.”