By Michael Martz

Since terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, more than 230,000 troops have been deployed to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from Virginia military bases.

Now, a state program is trying to help those coming back to find help for problems they might not even want to discuss.

The Virginia Wounded Warrior Program is using a tiny budget to reach a big problem — veterans with behavioral-health problems, ranging from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to traumatic brain injuries.

More than 813,000 military veterans live in Virginia, including more than 38,000 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. And that doesn’t include the families of service members who have been deployed.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as we’re concerned,” said Mary Anne Bergeron, executive director of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards. “When they come back, families expect the same person. Well, they’re not getting the same person.”

Bergeron’s association represents community agencies that are joining with the fledgling program to find services for veterans of all eras, but especially the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Veterans don’t have to have endured combat experience to get help from the program, which is part of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services.

Beal Carter, for example, is a former U.S. Army cook who left the service 30 years ago. He has struggled with depression and the loss of his right leg, which was amputated almost 10 years ago because of a staph infection he picked up in a Veterans Administration hospital in upstate New York.

This week, Carter got a new wheelchair ramp for his South Richmond home, thanks to the work of the Wounded Warrior Program and volunteers for ElderHomes, a local nonprofit organization that provides housing assistance for people with low incomes.

“It’s like God is putting them in my life at the right time in the right place,” said Carter, 50, who grew up in the Northern Neck and was homeless when he moved to Richmond more than a year ago.

The 23-foot-long modular ramp is one of about 300 that ElderHomes has built and installed in the past three years at no charge for disabled Virginians with low incomes.

The Wounded Warrior Program helped make it happen, just as it did in fixing Carter’s handicap-accessible van, which he needed to get to doctor’s appointments at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a short drive from his home on Bells Road.

“It’s really about community collaboration,” said Edward M. McIntosh, an Army veteran who serves as coordinator of the Wounded Warrior Program for the region that includes the Richmond area.

McIntosh served in the Persian Gulf War and the conflict in Somalia in the 1990s, before he earned a master’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Now he’s trying to connect veterans with the services they need, whether from the federal VA system, the state’s system of local community services boards, or nonprofits such as ElderHomes and Caritas, which helped Carter furnish the house that a VA supportive housing program found for him.

“It’s partnership and collaboration, using the existing resources in the most efficient and effective way possible,” said Catherine Wilson, a retired Navy captain who is executive director of the 2-year-old program.

The program is operating with an annual budget of $2 million, of which $1.7 million was awarded through a competitive grant process to the five health planning regions of the state. But since its founding in mid-2008, the Wounded Warrior Program has:

•received a grant for almost $400,000 from the from the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative to help train service providers in how to care for someone with traumatic brain injury; •held training sessions for providers in all five regions on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder; •prompted community services boards to identify veterans who already are receiving services, creating a database that can be used to ensure that veterans and families get all the help to which they are entitled; and •partnered with the Department of Defense’s Real Warriors Campaign, which is aimed at veterans who are reluctant to seek help. “They are trying to reduce the stigma,” Wilson said. “It’s OK for real warriors to ask for help.”

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com .

abridges@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER — A little more Christmas cheer came to a couple of local families this year thanks to a veterans advocacy group and the Virginia Employment Commission.

The Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing and the Virginia Employment Commission joined efforts to assist two families — one nearly homeless and another that had no permanent home as of last week.

Alisha Mitchell, 11, center, gets a hug from Daphne Mize, veterans outreach representative with the Virginia Employment Commission, as Alisha’s mother, Tammy Mitchell, looks on. The Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing and the Virginia Employment Commission joined efforts to offer a happier Christmas to the Mitchells, of Stephens City, and the Collins family, of Frederick County. T.J. Collins, 26, is shown at far right. Rich Cooley/Daily

T.J. Collins, 26, said his 50-year-old mother, Alice, started a new job Tuesday after having been out of work for 10 years. Mrs. Collins served in the U.S. Air Force from 1979 to 1983 and is currently seeking disability status, he said. T.J., who is fully disabled, has a 23-year-old brother, William, whom Ms. Mize has been helping to find a job.

“Finding [Mrs. Collins] employment was one of the main things that we really wanted to do, and we really wanted to show them that there is someone there standing behind them,” Mize said. “John’s standard quote is, ‘We’re not going to leave any veteran behind,’ and during this time, these two, they brought themselves over to us with a challenge that we actually took on.”

T. J. Collins carries a gift bag he received Tuesday for his family from the staff of the Virginia Employment Commission in Winchester.

“And we have our own house again,” T.J. Collins said. “The house is bigger than anything we’ve ever lived in.”

The two-story house off Senseny Road is big enough for the family and Collins’ therapy dogs, he said. “It’s a wonderful house and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without Miss Mize and Mr. Lewandowski or anyone else who helped.”

T.J. Collins noted that the family received help from the Salvation Army and Northwestern Community Services and “countless” churches. When they lost their house, a local storage business stepped in to help, he said.

Earlier this month, employment office workers started collecting for the families, which they knew from trying to help them find jobs, Mize said.

The Collins’s lost their home and had been living at Shoney’s Inn on Berryville Avenue and then Echo Village on Valley Avenue since Dec. 1.

The Mitchells, of Stephens City, and the Collins’s, of Frederick County, received laundry baskets full of food from both groups three days before Christmas. Daphne Mize, Veterans Outreach Representative with the VEC, and John Lewandowski, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Veterans Committee, presented the donations and gifts to the two families at his home and office Dec. 22.

“However, they toughed it through,” Mize said. “They just got their house. That is the best of the best for them to have a merry Christmas.”

The Collins’s also have pets, and Mize said her office tried to find a way to keep the family and their animals together.

“We know that some situations are a little bit more difficult when it comes to having pets, but during this season we didn’t want to see that happen so we went the extra mile keeping them all together,” Mize said.

President Lewandowski recently appointed Daphne Mize to serve as the DVCH Committee’s Director of Veterans Outreach. Mize, also a disabled veteran, served six years in the U.S. Army. Both continue to work with veterans to find homes and jobs for them.

“I help [veterans] anyway that I can possibly help them,” Lewandowski said.

The Mitchells’ situation, Mize said, “is sort of working itself out.” The employment office continues to provide services for the family. Tammy Mitchell is actively seeking work, and the family has taken in a boarder to help bring in more money, Mize said.

Mrs. Mitchell said her husband, Daren, an Army veteran, is 40 percent disabled and remains in a wheelchair.

The employment offices likely will see more cases of homeless veterans seeking assistance, Mize said.

“There are some families, we understand, living in the woods, and you know it’s really tough but what do you do?” Mize said.

Lewandowski started helping the Mitchells last year.

“He showed me what the true meaning of Christmas is, because that was something that was long forgotten, and my Christmas spirit came back tenfold last year,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “Every time I think I’m going to give up, all it takes is a phone call from John and my faith and my spirit comes back, and everything he’s done is truly a blessing and a gift.”

The Virginia Employment Office workers pitched in and bought gifts for the Mitchells’ 11-year-old daughter, Alisha. The wrapped gifts sat under the tree, and Mize let Alisha open one before Christmas.

The girl carefully to unwrap the gift, which was a winter coat in her favorite color — purple.

“She loves purple,” Alisha’s mother said.

Mitchell hugs her daughter after the girl received an early Christmas present — a winter coat — from the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing in Winchester on Tuesday

“It’s so pretty,” Alisha said, hugging the coat close.

The Lord Fairfax Area Food Bank also donated a box of items to each family, Lewandowski said. And Shoney’s Inn gave each family a free meal on Christmas, he said.

Mitchell said she is registered with the VEC and is actively seeking work.

“I’m just waiting for the right job to come along,” she said. “We’re getting there.”

Mitchell thanked Lewandowski for the help he has given her family.

“I don’t even know where to begin, I really don’t,” she said. “I’m so appreciative of John, because without him, truly, there have been several times when I would’ve just totally given up.

“Whether my husband is having a seizure or is having one of those days where he can’t even get out of bed, and I call and I talk to John and he assures me that it will be OK.”

The Mitchells live in a double-wide trailer in Stephens City, but the family wants to find another home — one that might have a yard in which Alisha could play. Mitchell said the rules of their subdivision are strict. Her husband also has a canine to assist him.

The family members continued to thank Mize and Lewandowski for the food and gifts that made their holidays a little happier.

“Without these there really wouldn’t be much of a Christmas,” Alisha said.

T.J. Collins, 26, said his 50-year-old mother, Alice, started a new job Tuesday after having been out of work for 10 years. Mrs. Collins served in the U.S. Air Force from 1979 to 1983 and is currently seeking disability status, he said. T.J., who is fully disabled, has a 23-year-old brother, William, whom Ms. Mize has been helping to find a job.
“Finding [Mrs. Collins] employment was one of the main things that we really wanted to do, and we really wanted to show them that there is someone there standing behind them,” Mize said. “John’s standard quote is, ‘We’re not going to leave any veteran behind,’ and during this time, these two, they brought themselves over to us with a challenge that we actually took on.”

T. J. Collins carries a gift bag he received Tuesday for his family from the staff of the Virginia Employment Commission in Winchester.

“And we have our own house again,” T.J. Collins said. “The house is bigger than anything we’ve ever lived in.”The two-story house off Senseny Road is big enough for the family and Collins’ therapy dogs, he said. “It’s a wonderful house and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without Miss Mize and Mr. Lewandowski or anyone else who helped.”
T.J. Collins noted that the family received help from the Salvation Army and Northwestern Community Services and “countless” churches. When they lost their house, a local storage business stepped in to help, he said.Earlier this month, employment office workers started collecting for the families, which they knew from trying to help them find jobs, Mize said.The Collins’s lost their home and had been living at Shoney’s Inn on Berryville Avenue and then Echo Village on Valley Avenue since Dec. 1.”However, they toughed it through,” Mize said. “They just got their house. That is the best of the best for them to have a merry Christmas.”

The Collins’s also have pets, and Mize said her office tried to find a way to keep the family and their animals together.

“We know that some situations are a little bit more difficult when it comes to having pets, but during this season we didn’t want to see that happen so we went the extra mile keeping them all together,” Mize said.President Lewandowski recently appointed Daphne Mize to serve as the DVCH Committee’s Director of Veterans Outreach. Mize, also a disabled veteran, served six years in the U.S. Army. Both continue to work with veterans to find homes and jobs for them.

“I help [veterans] anyway that I can possibly help them,” Lewandowski said.The Mitchells’ situation, Mize said, “is sort of working itself out.” The employment office continues to provide services for the family. Tammy Mitchell is actively seeking work, and the family has taken in a boarder to help bring in more money, Mize said.

Mrs. Mitchell said her husband, Daren, an Army veteran, is 40 percent disabled and remains in a wheelchair.
The employment offices likely will see more cases of homeless veterans seeking assistance, Mize said.
“There are some families, we understand, living in the woods, and you know it’s really tough but what do you do?” Mize said.

Lewandowski started helping the Mitchells last year.
“He showed me what the true meaning of Christmas is, because that was something that was long forgotten, and my Christmas spirit came back tenfold last year,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “Every time I think I’m going to give up, all it takes is a phone call from John and my faith and my spirit comes back, and everything he’s done is truly a blessing and a gift.”The Virginia Employment Office workers pitched in and bought gifts for the Mitchells’ 11-year-old daughter, Alisha. The wrapped gifts sat under the tree, and Mize let Alisha open one before Christmas.

The girl carefully to unwrap the gift, which was a winter coat in her favorite color — purple.
“She loves purple,” Alisha’s mother said.

“It’s so pretty,” Alisha said, hugging the coat close.The Lord Fairfax Area Food Bank also donated a box of items to each family, Lewandowski said. And Shoney’s Inn gave each family a free meal on Christmas, he said.
Mitchell said she is registered with the VEC and is actively seeking work.”I’m just waiting for the right job to come along,” she said. “We’re getting there.”

Mitchell thanked Lewandowski for the help he has given her family.”I don’t even know where to begin, I really don’t,” she said. “I’m so appreciative of John, because without him, truly, there have been several times when I would’ve just totally given up.

“Whether my husband is having a seizure or is having one of those days where he can’t even get out of bed, and I call and I talk to John and he assures me that it will be OK.”

The Mitchells live in a double-wide trailer in Stephens City, but the family wants to find another home — one that might have a yard in which Alisha could play. Mitchell said the rules of their subdivision are strict. Her husband also has a canine to assist him.

The family members continued to thank Mize and Lewandowski for the food and gifts that made their holidays a little happier.

“Without these there really wouldn’t be much of a Christmas,” Alisha said.

Persian Gulf War veteran James W. Moore

Persian Gulf War veteran James W. Moore, a Bronze Star recipient, had just finished his three-year tour of duty when his life was irrevocably changed.

Three days after returning to base in Germany from Iraq in 1991, an automobile accident severely injured the first lieutenant’s spine, leaving him a quadriplegic.

This week, a longtime dream was realized when Moore, 44, saw the start of a new home for him and his mother, Dessie, who serves as his caretaker.

The Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing — a nonprofit organization that helped find the 1-acre property, then planned and financed the project — held a groundbreaking Thursday for the home on Dry Creek Road in western Chesterfield County.

Asked what the house meant to him, Moore offered a one-word response: “Life.”

Moore and his mother now live in nearby Brandermill, in a home where he has limited mobility. Moore designed his future home with the help of Woodford-based R.L. Seely Homes, brought on to the project by the veterans housing committee.

“The idea came out of my brain,” said Moore, adding that he had been envisioning the floor plan for five years. “They did an outstanding job.”

Equipped with electronic doors, easily accessible rooms and a hydraulic lift system throughout, the one-story home will be built specifically to meet Moore’s needs.

“It will just be a better quality of life for me, and nice to be able to get around my own house without banging into things,” he said with a laugh.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will provide an environmental control unit allowing Moore to control the lights, the television and access the Internet with the voice-controlled device.

Through its One-Stop-Shop program, the veterans housing committee is making his dream of freedom a reality, having already secured $80,000 in grant money from Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America for the $360,000 project. The organization will collect donations and raise other money throughout the construction process to reduce the mortgage.

“We’re very aggressive and we make sure the deal holds together,” said Richard L. Seely, executive director for the organization, noting that working through the red tape on a disabled veteran’s home is a cumbersome process. “It’s a labor of love for us.”

Moore’s home will be the first built by the organization in central Virginia.

Moore earned his Bronze Star as a tank platoon leader with the Army’s 3rd Armored Division, engaging the Republican Guard in one of the war’s first ground battles.

Color Guard

“Given the circumstances, he has a wonderful attitude,” Dessie said. “He has good days and bad days. Before he could deal with the war, he had to deal with the injuries. He’s just now beginning a little bit to deal with the war experiences.”

About 25 people, including two local high schools’ color guards, came out for the groundbreaking ceremony.

“This is nice,” Moore said. “A bit overwhelming, but really nice.”

The home is expected to be complete in four months.

“It will mean everything to see him in a place that he can easily get around,” Dessie said. “It’s just going to be wonderful.”

By Alex Bridges — abridges@nvdaily.com

Spectators salute as Bill Scott, of the local chapter of the Korean War Veterans during the raising the American Flag, by Frank Messer of American Legion Post 21during a Ceremony at 147 Duwamish Trail on Thursday afternoon

Winchester — John S. Lewandowski lives in special house. But the wheelchair-bound, disabled veteran say many others like him need these kinds of homes and cannot afford them.
On Thursday, local veterans appeared for a flag-raising ceremony held by the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing to commemorate the building of Lewandowski’s home at 147 Duwamish Trail in Shawneeland.

Taking part in the ceremony were American Legion Post 21, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2123, the Winchester chapter of the Korean War Veterans, the John F. Morrison Jr. Memorial Chapter 1019 of the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Stonewall Jackson Chapter 9 of the Disabled Veterans of America.

“It’s what the veterans need and I hope we can get a few more,” said Owen Johnston, commander of American Legion Post 21.

The house serves as the committee headquarters and office for Lewandowski, its president and chief executive officer. From this office, Lewandowski said, he will continue to help disabled veterans of all wars with housing and other needs.

“My thing is, I’m a veteran, I’m 100 percent disabled and I want to devote the rest of my life to helping other veterans, with my knowledge of how to get into specially adapted housing, or how to obtain grants for housing, or to get any type of things they need,” Lewandowski said after the ceremony.

R.L. Seely Homes built the home in three months, according to Lewandowski, and completed it in March.

Richard “Dick” Seely, executive director of the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing, described the group as a “one-stop-shop” by which volunteers go to a disabled veterans home and work with them in either building an adapted home or renovate one to meet their needs.

Tammy Mitchell said the committee helped her and her husband, Daren, a disabled veteran, when the family entered a rough financial patch and they needed a wheelchair-accessible bathroom for their Stephens City home. Lewandowski put her in contact other veterans groups that have also helped the family, she said.

“If I could sum up him and his organization, it’s awe-inspiring,” Mitchell said.

Lewandowski compares the work he and the committee do to that of the ABC-TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

“I call myself the Ty Pennington of the poor group and the reason why I say that is because Ty, he has all those corporate sponsors,” Lewandowski said, referring to the show’s host. “All I got is my voice and my telephone to handle everything, and I’ve been able to get corporations to work with us.”

The group is moving forward to build similar homes in Chesterfield County and Staunton, Lewandowski said.
His goal now is to start a group with representatives from all veteran organizations who then could work with other agencies to “see what we can do to better these veterans’ life.”

“That’s my goal — independence and freedom to do the things that they can’t do because of either their living conditions or restrictions they have with their life,” he said.

WINCHESTER — John S. Lewandowski wants to go into his kitchen and cook a meal for his wife.

But with three failed knee surgeries, the retired Army staff sergeant needs a wheelchair to move about and his National Avenue house wasn’t built with a wheelchair in mind, so he can’t go into some of its rooms.

Few houses are, and that puts disabled veterans at a disadvantage, said Lewandowski he wants to change that. He is president of the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing, a new nonprofit group which hopes to help veterans with disabilities to find homes adapted to their needs. This will most likely happen by building them. Some 1,800 wounded veterans are back from Iraq and Afghanistan, Lewandowski said, joining disabled veterans from earlier wars — who are aging and whose disabilities may be getting worse ., and most live in houses not adapted for the disabled. “You need a five-foot turnaround for a wheelchair,” he said.

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs has programs to help disabled veterans, including housing efforts, but few veterans know about them, Lewandowski said and getting through the red tape isn’t always easy. The idea for helping disabled veterans to find houses suited to their needs actually came from Richard Seely, President of Seely & Associates Inc. and a board member of the committee. “There was a huge void,” Seely said.

“A Huge Void”

He suggested that the answer was building the appropriate houses and he knew just the person to do that — his son Richard Seely Jr., a housing contractor. Seely Jr. has qualified with the VA to build adaptive housing. But, Seely said, it quickly became apparent that the area where veterans most needed help was with the process. “So, we all worked together to create this ‘One-Stop Shop,’” Seely said.

“Cutting the red tape”

That’s where Patricia L. Davis comes in.
An experienced loan officer, real estate agent, and certified housing counselor, she will be the mediator between veterans and the bureaucracies they must deal with to obtain the benefits they are entitled to, Lewandowski said.

For example, if a veteran would like to build a $200,000 home, Davis said, the VA has a program. It will fund up to $60,000 toward the house for veterans who have 100 percent service-connected disabilities. We have all the current eligibility requirements from the Special Adapted Housing Branch. She can work with a bank to fund the rest of the mortgage, making sure the veteran has the income and credit scores to qualify. “I can even find the lot, if needed.”

As a certified housing counselor, Davis said, that’s an important aspect of her participation. Two years ago, if more people had obtained counseling about their loans and mortgages, she said, “we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.” She can also work with a builder on a draw schedule and make sure each part of the financial equation works out.
“We don’t put a vet in any kind of harm. That means not putting him in a house he can’t afford,” Lewandowski said so all the pieces are in place, he said.

“Leading the Way”

His job is to get the word out, so disabled veterans know they can get help and where to call.

“I’m Polish. I love to talk. I’ll talk this up until I’m blue in the face,” Lewandowski said.

While he may be confined to a chair, he can use the telephone and the computer, which means he can talk to and for veterans. “I’m a vet,” he said, and other vets feel comfortable talking to him.
In fact, he said, he has several disabled veterans on the committee for just that reason — they
understand the problems and the needs, and also how to deal with the VA.

The committee is completing the paperwork for its first project, a new adapted house in Shawneeland, Lewandowski said.

“Dreaming big”

He’s already dreaming of bigger & better things. What about a Veterans Village?

If someone would like to donate a structure, Lewandowski envisions an apartment complex for disabled veterans, with the units adapted to individual needs. It might have a communal dining area, he said, with a social room, beauty and barber shop, and television lounge, so disabled veterans wouldn’t be so isolated.

“A lot of vets don’t want to talk about their service, because they felt nobody cared,” he said. But get them together and they can have relationships with people who do care.

Perhaps single-family homes could be placed around the main building — for married vets and their families, “similar to [the] Westminster-Canterbury [retirement complex], but not as elaborate.”

He’d also like to have a contingency fund to help new residents with the expenses of moving in, such as deposits or the first tank of fuel oil. “There are so many things I’d love to accomplish in the time that “I have left.”

We’re lucky to have John working with us on this,” said Seely. “He’s the door-opener.”

Lewandowski said he’s working with eight veterans on a variety of other problems, from jobs to house repairs to advice.

“I’ve got a lot