Ex-Melrose Alderman Continuing Veterans Outreach Amid Uncertainty

MELROSE, MA — The Veterans Northeast Outreach Center can't host guitar or yoga lessons these days. Neither can it teach budgeting practices or give consumer credit counseling. Pizza nights? No way.

So, in the era of coronavirus, VNOC is bringing whatever services it can to veterans.

"If they can't come to us," Director of Supportive Services Scott Forbes said, "we'll go to them."

VNOC, a nonprofit based out of Haverhill, in ordinary times serves thousands of veterans with food, housing, re-acclimation, skills and whatever else they need. Now, in the midst of what President Trump is calling a war against an "invisible enemy," the organization is switching strategies.

"The last 30 days we've done a 180 in how we perform outreach," Forbes said. "We're still trying to do everything we can."

The organization continues to operate through the state's partial shutdown as an essential business — it's certainly essential to veterans across Massachusetts. In addition to Haverhill, there are service centers in Marlboro and Hyannis.

Forbes, a former Melrose City Councilor who is retired from the Air Force after 22 years and three deployments, doesn't see the new reality as a hindrance to VNOC's mission. He see an opportunity.

VNOC is meeting people virtually and performing wellness checks on veterans, many of whom are isolated and alone, while maintaining social distance. Just recently VNOC delivered the equivalent to 2,000 individual meals to veterans in the North Shore and MetroWest.

Employees still staff their shelters 24/7, tending to the housing needs of dozens veterans who can live for a year rent- and utility-free.

"We allow them to kind of hit the reset button," Forbes said.

Forbes, who comes from a military family that saw his grandfather, father and sister serve, knows how vital the reset can be.

"When I got back from Afghanistan, I had a hard time hitting the reset button," he said. "Your military and civilian life kind of collide into one another ... There are invisible scars of war that no one wants to talk about.

"But people need to understand there are support organizations out there. This organization gave it to me when I needed it most now I can do that for other people and thats what motivates me to go to work every day."

While VNOC operates on grants and a whole lot of elbow grease, the nonprofit is still in need of the same things rest of the country is: Rubber gloves, surgical masks, cleaning supplies. People can find out how to donate here.

There are other ways to help the cause.

"What we do at the local level truly matters," Forbes said. "If you are sitting here and asking how to do your part, invest in local initiatives."