2016 ANNUAL REPORT · 2019-09-30 · Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas 2016 Page 2 of 10...

Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas 2016

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2016 ANNUAL REPORT


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VCNCT 2016 Annual Report

he Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas (VCNCT) was formed in August of 2011. The sponsoring agency was Mental

Health America of Greater Dallas under the Operations Reunion program. The coalition was formed in conjunction with

several partnering agencies: Dallas County Veterans Service Office, Veterans for Christ, and the Child and Family Assessment

Center. Together these organizations were able to organize monthly meetings to assemble community partners to collaborate,

strategize on best practices, network, and provide services to Veterans and their family members.

The Vision of the Coalition is to “Mobilize all sectors of society to give our service members and their families the opportunities and

support they have earned”. Our Mission is “To build bridges between both public, private, and not for profit organizations at the

local, county, state, and federal levels; for all our veterans, and their families by rebuilding, educating, and equipping all veterans to

reintegrate back into society and to bring awareness and a call to action to all communities of the challenges of our veterans and

their families.”

The VCNCT has five Central Initiatives:

• Housing: To assist Veterans and their families in establishing temporary to permanent housing, while providing

education and resources for growth and stability.

• Employment: To assist Veterans and their families in reintegrating back into the work force. Providing

mentoring, coaching, entrepreneurship and career development, trainings, and skill set development.

• Mental Health: To provide assistance to Veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic

Brain Injury (TBI), & Military Sexual Trauma (MST). Assisting with free and confidential counseling services

addressing mental, physical, and spiritual health and healing.

• Education: To assist Veterans with education resources, training, & development with higher education,

certification, and work experience. Offering step-by-step guidance, referrals, and supportive services.

Financial Education: Assist Veterans and their families in obtaining financial awareness, stability,

and security. Providing a financial coach to guide families in financial life decisions from basic budgeting to

retirement.

The Coalition is committed to providing services that have been identified by Military men and women, as well as

Coalition Members that work directly with Veterans and their family members. The Coalition has had the extraordinary

responsibility to bring together various entities throughout North and Central Texas to better serve the Veterans, their

families, the community, and the State of Texas.

The 2016 Coalition year has brought much success in supporting Military families in the Texas community. The magnitude of success has been made possible through the hard work and dedication of volunteers, community partners, community sponsors, and dedicated Board Members. The Coalition meets every last Thursday of the month from 11:00am to 1:00pm, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on designated celebratory months, excluding Holidays or event months. This year, the Coalition has provided over $111,416.25 in services & programs directly to Veterans and their family members.

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We would like to thank our supporting businesses and organizations for donating meeting locations for the Coalition each month. We would also like to thank our supporting organizations that provided lunch for each meeting. The organizations are listed in order followed by lunch sponsors:

January 2016-Host: Irving Bible Church Sponsor: General Thomas Daniels February 2016-Transformance March 2016-Recovery Resource Council April 2016- SMU Plano May 2016- Universal Technical Institute June 2016- No meeting July 2016- Host: Communities Foundation of Texas: Mind Games-Mental Health Forum August 2016- Tower Club of Dallas, Sponsor: Aviall a Boeing Company September 2016- No meeting October 2016-Rehabilitation Hospital of Arlington November 2016-Veterans Resource Center, T4V Volunteer Day December 2016-No meeting

The Veterans Coalition held eight monthly Coalition meetings in the 2016 year, there were 701 attendees, and an additional meeting used as a volunteer day for event preparation. The ability to mobilize all sectors of society has allowed the Coalition to be the largest in Texas, with over 80 agencies represented. In addition to our events, we have participated in a plethora community events, Conferences, seminars, trainings, and other community events as vendors and resources.

VCNCT 2016 EVENTS

“Mind Games: The State of Veterans Mental Health”

The Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas hosted its first mental health community Forum. “Mind Games: The State

of Veterans Mental Health” was held at the Communities Foundation of Texas. It was developed by VCNCT Mental

Health Committee, as part of a series of mental health education

sessions. This mental health forum followed an education sessions,

previously conducted at a VCNCT monthly meeting. The mission of

the VCNCT Mental Health Committee is: To provide

assistance to Veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), & Military Sexual

Trauma (MST). Assisting with free and confidential counseling

services in NC Texas and the Ft. Hood/Killeen area, covering

mental, physical, and spiritual health and healing. The purpose

of the forum was to bring together the community, Veterans and

their families, Veterans Service Organizations, and State Representatives to openly discuss mental health, resources,

advocacy, collaboration at all levels, and best practices. There were two panels: Community Leaders and State

Representatives. The first panel of community leaders consisted of four panelists discussing mental health as it relates to


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the following: 1. Moral Impact (Faith Based) 2. Self-Advocacy 3. The State of the VA 4. Mental Health Services 5. Recent

shootings by Veterans.

The second panel of State Representatives also consisted of four

panelists. They discussed mental health as it relates to the following:

1. Their Districts 2. Services and support in their districts 3. Self-

Advocacy 4. The Hazelwood Act 5. 84th and 85th Texas Legislature 6.

Veterans Court The panelist responded to a series of questions,

educating attendees on their organizations, services and resources,

and personal and professional experiences. (Please see the event

program for panelist bios) Upon the completion of both panels, the

moderator opened up the floor for questions and comments. In

addition to the attendees, VCNCT live streamed the event on their

face book page. There were 67 attendees and 127 people logged on and viewed the event on social media. The

following organizations participated as supporting partners of the event: 1. Disabled Veterans National Foundation 2.

Dallas County Veteran Services Office 3. Mental Health America of Greater Dallas 4. Dallas Rotary Club 5. VCNCT Mental

Health Committee. The full report and power point can be found online under reports.

“Joint County Meeting”

The Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas (VCNCT)

hosted its 4th annual “Joint County Meeting: Service in

Motion” in Grand Prairie this year. For the first time, the

Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex served as our

host, opening its gates to the Coalition and members. As

long time partners of the Coalition, we were allowed to

submit an approved list of Coalition members, civilians, to

have access to the complex. The Coalition called on it

members and partnering Veteran Service Organizations

(VSO) from surrounding Counties to bring their information

and resources directly to the Soldiers. The organizations present served over 16 Counties. This year’s theme, “Service-in-

Motion” was a calling for the Coalition to move from meeting with VSO’s to discuss best practices and resources to

taking our meeting and information directly to the population we all serve, Veterans. The attending Veterans

represented several units and have deployed at least one time. The meeting was sponsored by Mariscos La Marea, an

authentic sea food Mexican restaurant. Their amazing staff served approximately 78 Veterans and 68 exhibitors and

VCNCT members. There were 27 presenting exhibitor’s booths that shared information regarding programs and

resources. Exhibitors presented on information regarding the following: Housing Education Employment Mental


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Health Financial Education Transportation VA Benefits Legal Representation How to start a business and

more. The power point presentation listing each presenter can be found on our website under 2016 reports, as well as

event pictures.

The Complex also celebrated Christmas, for those that were not able to go home. The Coalition donated the Christmas tree and gifts for kids.

“THANKSGIVING-4-VETERANS”

The Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas (VCNCT) celebrated its Annual “Thanksgiving-4-Veterans.“ The event took place at the Veterans Resource Center in Dallas and was the biggest to date. The purpose of the event is to provide Thanksgiving dinner for Veterans and their family members and to provide the attendees information on available resources. Supporting organizations provided the following items:

Sponsors and Partners

VCNCT Events Committee:Overall Event Coordination Albertsons: 300 12lb-16lb turkeys Tom Thumb: Food order Aviall: Monetrary Donations(Title Sponsor) Goldman Sacs: Monetary Donations (Co-Title Sponsor) Eagle Ridge Ele.: Food Drive Elementary Food Drive Texas Land Board: 257 bags Veterans Resource Center: Event Location

Blue Cross Blue Shield: 350 Bags NFL Players Assoc.: 100 Turkeys and 80 hams U-haul of Dallas U-haul truck Volunteers 50 Handmade Scarves Various Volunteers Turkeys and side items Mother Ruckers Cookies 540 Boxes of Cookies Jodi Dean 63 turkeys Jervis Williams DJ Music & Entertainment


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Volunteers & Resources

Dallas County Veteran Services Office: Volunteers/Resources Goldman Sacs: Volunteers Aviall Volunteers The Mission Continues: Volunteers Dallas Vet Life: Volunteers/Resources North Texas Food Bank: Resources Legal Aid of Northwest Texas: Volunteers/Resources 211: Volunteers Texas Veterans Commission: Volunteer

The coordination and preparation of the event took approximately two months. There were approximately 59 volunteers representing 12 different community based organizations, and all branches of service. There were 473 turkeys donated and 80 hams totaling approximately $8,050, 16 various products totaling 8,800 side items over $8,200, producing 607 bags of food. There was one bagging session with 49 volunteers bagging totaling 6 hours. There were two food drive sites that collected canned and boxed goods for the event and several walk-in donations. Lunch was provided for volunteers on bagging day and donuts for volunteers and attendees on event day.

On the day of the event 465 turkeys were given to Veterans and 80 hams, serving 503 reported family members, 507 bags with side items, and resources were given. Of the 100 remaining bags, 65 were donated to the Veterans Resource Center to feed homeless Veterans and 35 to Friendship West Baptist Church Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. The average age of the Veteran attendee was 51.


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“CHRISTMAS-4-VETERANS”

The VCNCT was honored to partner with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Frisco, Texas to host our 3rd annual Angel Tree event “Christmas-4-Veterans”(C4V). Participants of that event were selected to take part in C4V based on their identified need and request. We selected multiply families, totaling 70 recipients. Approximately 78 parish families purchased the gifts, bagged and labeled them. The families spent approximately $9,000 on the gifts. Recipients included the Veteran, a spouse, parent, dependent, or care giver. This is a private event, not promoted to the public.

A sincere thank you to the church, the families, and organizer for their unselfish and loving efforts. Your gifts, time, and

consideration is appreciated. The families were very appreciate and brought tears to their because of your generosity.

The VCNCT host and participates in a plethora of community events, partner events, and programs throughout the community.

“EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE”

Funds were used to provide temporary emergency assistance to families in need. Due to the abundant request, the larger request were referred to partnering organizations.

“Employment: Veterans Career Development Program”

Various trainings were given on Resume Building and Conversion, How to give a standout Interview, Networking: Making Strategic Connections, Job Searching: Where to find the career for you, and The Aftermath: Now that you have the positions.

Future Leaders of Wall Street (FLOWS)

“Future Leaders of Wall Street” or FLOWS program is a pilot program implemented in the 2016-2017 school year. The program followed the original control group from the pilot class. The students were followed to the Desoto High School campus and continued classes every Friday for an hour. The program continued the focus on the fundamentals of money.

VCNCT 2016 Community Support Events

“Salute to Americas Veterans”

The Rotary Club of Dallas hosted its 12th Annual Salute to America’s Veterans Event. This event benefits the USO DFW and the Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas. This outstanding program honors the contributions of veterans across the generations for maintaining our freedom and liberty, and raises much needed financial assistance for these two organizations that transform the lives of our active military, our veterans and their families. We are honored to be recognized by such an amazing organization. The annual donation contributes to our Veteran outreach programs.

“Discount Pharmacy Card”

The VCNCT helps families save money with a prescription drug card. Each time used, the Veterans Coalition

earns $1.00. There were 92 utilizations, saving an average of 29.55%, and a monetary savings of $2,973.46. This program supports our emergency assistance program.

VCNCT 2016 Programs


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Coalition Service Data

The table below will give you a snap shot of our outreach efforts. Data was gathered from registration of each event.

Some attendees did not submit all requested data; therefore, this is a fraction of our quantitative outreach.

Service 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Number of

Coalition

Meetings

4 9 9 8 10 9

Coalition

Members

60+ 60+ 70+ 75+ 75+ 80+

Coalition

Meeting

Sponsors

3 6 9 10 11 9

Number of

Attendees

542 582 463 472 681 701

Number of

Events

1 2 3 4 3 4

Number of

Participating

Events

1 3 6 1 3 2

Veterans &

Families Served

1780 1398 366 1,368 982 1,631

Dollar amount

of direct free

services

$14,615 $30,000 $9,000 $25,000 $24,276 $111,416.25

Number of

Volunteers

51 110 16 58 183 174

Partnering

Organizations

19 108 47 57 53 28

Sponsoring

Organizations

9 42 14 9 16 16

Number of

Board Members

7 7 6 9 7 7

Number of BM

Direct Years of

Service

115 115 107 167 101 101

Number of

Indirect Years of

Service

141 141 133 192 116 116

Justification Descriptions:

Number of Coalition Meetings: Calculated by number of monthly meetings held annually.

Coalition Members: Number of organizations that attend monthly meetings at least four times annually.

Coalition meeting sponsors: Number of organizations that sponsor a monthly meeting, by providing a location and or

lunch.

Number of attendees: Number of individuals that attend monthly coalition meetings.

Number of events: Number of annual VCNCT sponsored community events.

Number of participating events: Number of community events, VCNCT participates in annually.


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Veteran & Families served: Number of individuals VCNCT serves annually, through direct events and programs.

Dollar amount of direct free services: Quantitative dollar amount used to provide direct services (includes direct

services provided by volunteers). NOTE: The quantitative dollar amount for volunteers hours was not calculated for the

2011-2015 years.

Number of volunteers: Calculated by number of individuals that volunteered (served) at a VCNCT event or program.

Our Charge To You

“Wanted! More to improve and fewer to disapprove. More doers and fewer talkers. More to

say it can be done and fewer to say it’s impossible. More to inspire others and fewer to throw

cold water on them. More to get into the thick of things and fewer to sit on the sidelines.

More to point out what’s right and fewer to show what’s wrong. More to light a candle and

fewer to curse the darkness.”

- John C. Maxwell

The Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas is committed to treating Veterans with the respect and gratitude they

ought to be given. We challenge you to join us in our efforts to serve those who have served. It is not enough to do our

best, we must do what is required! This we charge to the Coalition members, community partners, sponsors, and

Veterans of all eras to find their gap and become a gap filler.

By supporting the Coalition you became a gap filler, by giving of your resources, time, consideration, funds, support,

love, and dedication, to this we say THANK YOU!

Special Recognitions

Board Members Financial Sponsoring Partners

Nekima Horton, President-WWII Dependent

Tracy Little-Board Chair- Air Force Veteran

Capt. Bob Dill- Army Veteran

Capt. Nate Couser- Army Veteran

Bishop “DD” Hayes- Air Force Veteran

Maj. General James Williams- Marine Veteran

Charles Read: Marine Veteran

The Baron & Blue Foundation •Rotary Club of Dallas •VSweeps •Community Foundations of Texas •North Texas Fair Housing Center •Mutual of Omaha •Hunt Cares Employee Campaign •114th RC Aero Squadron •Bank of America

•Anderson Family Foundation •Kennett Consulting Services •Society Daughters of the American Revolution •Friendship West Baptist Church •Inner Connections •Mutual of Omaha Bank •Goldman Sachs •Aviall, a Boeing Company •Transformance


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For more information about The Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas contact:

Nekima Horton, Coalition President and CEO

[email protected] Website/social media:

www.VCNCT.org www.facebook.com/vcnct

www.twitter.com/2011vcnct www.linkedin.com/in/vcnct

Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas P.O. Box 132275(mailing)

Dallas, TX. 75313 1910 Pacific Ave. (Physical)

Dallas, TX. 75201

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.vcnct.org/

http://www.facebook.com/vcnct

http://www.twitter.com/2011vcnct

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcnct

2016 ANNUAL REPORT · 2019-09-30 · Veterans Coalition of North Central Texas 2016 Page 2 of 10...

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