Partnership to aid homeless veterans
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
By GEORGE GRAHAM
ggraham@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Springfield law firm Robinson Donovan announced a partnership yesterday with Soldier On, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping homeless veterans regain a place in their communities.
Soldier On, a private, nonprofit organization based at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in Northampton, provides programs that help veterans from as far away as New Haven, Conn., with education and job training and to overcome substance abuse.
Homeless veterans are not served by Veterans Affairs and the federal government and it's up to the private sector to provide a helping hand, Jeffrey L. McCormick, managing partner at Robinson Donovan said.
"Robinson Donovan wanted to go beyond the more typical sponsorship to hands-on involvement with an organization making a difference in the community," McCormick said.
To that end, Robinson Donovan will provide Soldier On with legal support and marketing resources, McCormick said.
Timing is especially important because some 20 percent of the nation's homeless people are veterans, McCormick said. That percentage is climbing as veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, "some with severe post-traumatic stress disorder," McCormick said.
"What we stand for and what we all stand for in our community is as important as what we sell," McCormick said.
McCormick had approached Darby O'Brien, who does the firm's advertising, about a project the firm could support in the community. As a result, a partnership was formed.
Philip F. Mangano, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, met with Soldier On President and Chief Executive Officer John F. Downing and McCormick to announce the partnership.
The partnership is part of a national trend in which private entities target their specific resources and talents toward ending homelessness, Mangano said.
"Jeff and his team are volunteering to reinforce on the front lines all that Soldier On has established," Mangano said....