“Through a partnership with Homeward Bound, the city of Asheville provides support to implement the federal Supportive Services for Veteran Families grant. Homeward Bound was awarded $2.7 million in federal funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs to implement its Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) over the next three years.”
“Some time ago, an announcement was made public that Asheville’s mayor had accepted [first lady] Michelle Obama’s challenge to end veterans’ homelessness. Since then, I have not seen or heard anything about the actual plans to do this.”
About 50 supporters gathered at McCormick field this morning to honor veterans and contribute to Operation Homefront of the Carolinas, a nonprofit which provides financial relief, recovery assistance and recognition to veterans and their families in the Carolinas. The color guard of Freedom High School in Morganton presented the colors, followed by a speech from […]
Balsam Range “thoughtfully and respectfully adopted the name of a majestic range of mountains” near the band’s hometown in Haywood County, but the bluegrass ensemble’s reverence for Western North Carolina doesn’t end there. The five-piece will hold a benefit concert for the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Veterans Restoration Services, an organization providing housing, food […]
Ted Minnick has been a military man all his life. You can see it in his disciplined posture, his purposeful gait, his even gaze. What you cannot see, however, are the wounds he suffered as a result of his service — not from gunfire or shrapnel, but from exposure to a deadly, now-infamous herbicide known as […]
Veterans from around the world are in Asheville this week for the Veterans for Peace National Convention. The organization aims to build a culture of peace by helping the injured heal and helping educate the public about the true costs of war. The national convention started July 22 and runs through tomorrow, July 27, encompassing […]
Veterans Helping Veterans of Western North Carolina is a new organization created to help local veterans successfully reintegrate into civilian life. Matt Shepley said he founded the group because he recognized the need to prevent veterans’ homelessness and address issues with post-traumatic stress disorder, rather than waiting for veterans who require care to become homeless.
Last week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released an in-depth report examining the hunger and homelessness situations in 25 cities across the country, including Asheville. The report found that the city has serious issues with low wages, unaffordable housing, poverty, and the number of domestic violence survivors who end up homeless. Increases in homelessness are modest, but more families are homeless. The report also highlighted some local organizations doing “exemplary” work on the issues but predicted that coming social service cuts could make the situations on both fronts more dire.
Day after day, Earl Grey sits in his wheelchair on Biltmore Avenue, his Veterans Affairs ID card taped to the top of a red Folgers coffee container. He’s been homeless for four years. But in July, some concerned locals decided to help Grey track down the missing paperwork so he could start receiving disability checks again and get off the streets. (Photo by Max Cooper)
Despite having no military base nearby, nearly 20,000 veterans call Buncombe County home — giving it the sixth-largest veteran population in the state. As local visits for PTSD, depression, substance abuse, homelessness and unemployment continues to climb at Charles George VA, three local veterans share their struggles and stories about mental health. (Cover design by Sarah Riddle)
“Women veterans the fastest-growing population of homeless in America,” says retired Staff Sergeant Alyce Knaflich. Yet there are not enough beds available for them in local shelters.
I would like to bring a topic to the public attention. There is currently a bill on the table in Congress called HR 2985, otherwise known as the The Veteran's ID Card Act. Currently the only people authorized to have a veteran's ID card are those who retired after 20 years of military service, and […]
Based on claims that the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM) failed to provide female veterans with the same job training classes as their male counterparts, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a sex-discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor against ABCCM. The complaint was filed today on behalf of U.S. Army veteran Emily Bagby. (photo of Emily Bagby by Adam Taylor)
Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry executive director, Reverend Scott Rogers, will speak before the Senate sub-committee on Veterans Affairs today at 10 a.m. alongside the national coalition of homeless veterans, to share their principles and practices that are producing local outcomes above the national average.
Fig Bistro in Biltmore Village fed a steady stream of military veterans and their families a Thanksgiving buffet dinner.
Follow live Twitter coverage of the Nov. 1 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The Sunday, Sept. 25 fundraiser at the Bywater aims to send local war veterans on rehabilitative retreats.
The tough economy and higher fuel costs didn’t keep travelers off the roads or out of the skies this Thanksgiving season, which is traditionally the busiest travel time of the year. But sadly, not everyone in Western North Carolina was able to afford the costs of travel – or much of any Thanksgiving celebration at all.
About 20 people gathered at the Western North Carolina Veterans Memorial in downtown Asheville this afternoon, Nov. 11, to honor LGBT vets who served in silence or were discharged under the military’s don’t ask don’t tell policy. The event was organized by Angel Chandler of GetEQUAL and featured speeches by her as well as 17-year army veteran Alyce Knaflich and Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell.
About 200 people, among them uniformed soldiers, patch wearing vets, boy and girl scouts and civilians, gathered at Memorial Stadium above McCormick Field for the Asheville/Buncombe Memorial Day ceremony on Monday.
Flanked by public officials and veterans, the directors of the WNC Veterans’ Memorial put shovel to dirt, breaking ground today for the future memorial.
