DEVENS — While excitement is brewing for the sled hockey game planned Monday, April 13, for area veterans, officials at the nonprofit agency that is sponsoring the event said that is just one of many ways they are helping veterans find their footing in a world that sometimes makes you feel like you’re playing on the slippery surface of an ice rink.
“We are a veterans serving veterans organization,” said Jason Gilbert, CEO of Clear Path for Veterans New England. Gilbert said he is a veteran, as are 85% of the people who work there are, which he said is unique.
“That resonates extremely well. I had a stint of homelessness back in 2008, so I can share, empathize and talk about lived experiences. For us, it’s a very powerful tool, that peer-to-peer organization, it really works.”
“One of the things I learned when I got out was navigating the benefit system. I got a job, I didn’t access the benefits, then once I became homeless, I was like, I have benefits that I never even used. … But I had to figure it out.”
“We try to make sure there would be no veteran that would be alone, trying to figure it out, it’s a lonely path. We walk alongside, help them navigate the system and find the proper benefits.”
At Clear Path’s Devens veterans center, they offer a wide variety of veterans services, including a Thursday lunch that usually gets 150 people attending, with about 25 people, many veterans themselves, helping provide the meal.
“Serving lunch, connecting, we build connections, we understand some barriers they may have,” Gilbert said. “They may just be coming for lunch, trying to be active, but we’re getting the veterans together, understanding their needs as a whole and working together.”
“We’re trying to engage, obviously, the most vulnerable, and those that want to come in and give back, we engage that as well.”
Gilbert said Clear Path has served 14,000 veterans since 2017, but said there are 360,000 veterans in Massachusetts.
“We’re still looking for these veterans.”
And beyond helping arrange benefits, they offer tai chi, yoga, and events like the sled hockey game.
Clear Path’s main offerings include providing veterans with temporary and permanent housing, wellness services, hot meals and a food pantry, veterans case management, counseling and peer support sessions, and service dog training.
Clear Path has also established the Journey Home Campus in Leominster, which has emergency housing, plus transitional housing for up to two years. It is also now building an area for permanent housing, with help from federal grants, but they are also looking for donations to help finish the permanent housing.
“These numbers represent real lives changed, veterans moving from crisis to stability, families finding security and individuals reconnecting with purpose and hope,” Gilbert said.
“The traditional veterans’ organizations, such as the American Legion post, the [Veterans of Foreign Wars], [Disabled American Veterans] post all have bars and our younger veterans don’t want to sit in a bar anymore, they want to be engaged … and to be a bigger part of the community.”
“At Clear Path, we’re a veteran-led organization, many of us have lived-in experiences we can share and build that trust and camaraderie.”
Seeing the difference
Said Chacon, a volunteer working at Clear Path in Devens as part of an educational component of Job Corps, said, “This place has a lot of things to offer veterans. … Sometimes some veterans need community interaction and they need other people to be there, and (the people here) they really do care.”
“A new veteran came in on Tuesday, with his wife, at first they were sitting in a room, then we were giving them the tour, but as they were leaving she mentioned that this was the first time in a while she had seen him smile.”
“I think it’s a really positive place. There’s a lot of good people here and they’re doing good things here.”
Finding ways to help
Billy Auger is a case manager at Devens and he said the sled hockey game is just one of many ways Clear Path reaches out to veterans and helps them in any way possible.
“We wear a lot of hats here,” Auger said.
“And me as a case worker, I started off as a peer support specialist … we’re on a level playing field with the veterans that come in. They may feel isolated, we sit down and talk to them, help them work their way through the [Veterans Affairs] system, getting integrated back into the civilian lifestyle.”
He said he helps veterans deal with issues such as attaining food, dealing with homelessness and being in arrears on their bills. He said Clear Path has a grant they use to help homeless veterans or those at risk for homelessness.
“We do a lot of things that help veterans.”
Included in the offerings is a meal every Thursday at 1 p.m., a farmers market, an empowerment center, take-home food and clothing.
A women’s empowerment group has been helping out with Special Olympics, and that has blossomed into a rewarding experience for all involved, Auger said.
“We’re doing more than just helping veterans. We’re helping veterans help others in the community as well.”
“Part of being a service member or a veteran, you have that community, you have that place where people need you and rely on you. … The Special Olympics, helping out, it makes them feel like they are needed as much as when they were in the service.”
“When I got back, I had lost my purpose, I had no idea where to start,” said Auger, who was a Marine from 2002-2006.
“Team Rubicon, The Mission Continues … got me interested in helping other veterans and helping my community.”
“Here, we might have a couple of hundred volunteers on the roster and many of them are the veterans that have come in and received some help themselves. For some, they don’t need the financial assistance as much as the opportunity to be of service, and others do need the actual help.”
One activity is a build-a-flag workshop at Old Glory Millworks in Templeton. “They start out with a pile of wood, burn it, cut it … and you walk out of there with this gorgeous flag and that camaraderie, it’s more than just guys building a flag, it sparks those honest feelings, working with your hands. … We do get a lot of veterans that will go to the workshop and they’re retired or can’t physically or mentally do what they used to … but a chance to work with the hands again and reminisce on what they used to do. I’ve seen guys, their eyes just light up.”
The majority of the veterans are from the Vietnam era, Auger said, and “The biggest challenge is finding the (more recent) veterans. … We’re implementing more programs to reach out to those veterans. … the need is there. We’re trying, it is a very difficult age group to reach. A lot of them are working during the day, doing things at night. We’re trying to get the word out there.”
Auger and he said realizes that not all veterans want to engage with others that much, including with veterans organizations, but he said it’s a calling to try to reach out and help all they can, especially with the high incidence of suicide among veterans.
“I lost quite a few friends that way and it’s just difficult (to reach some of those veterans). We’re trying, that’s all you can do.”
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