Despite reduced services and attendance, Operation Stand Down Rhode Island’s Stand Down Weekend still provided legal, employment and housing assistance to more than 160 veterans at Johnston War Memorial Park and OSDRI headquarters.
According to an email from Executive Director Erik Wallen, the 162 veterans represented one-third of the total figure from last year’s installment at Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland. Thirty-one vets met with OSDRI’s employment and training squad, while 14 Division of Motor Vehicles cases were handled. Wallin noted there were 20 motions filed to expunge or waive fines, and those were scheduled to be heard Wednesday at 10 a.m.
OSDRI’s Legal Assistance for Warriors Program provided social security and disability help to 29 veterans, while 22 clients received housing assistance. Two homeless and COVID-19 vulnerable veterans were provided hotel rooms as well.
Wallin said that more clients took advantage of legal services this year than at the last OSDRI Stand Down Weekend – an example that showed, despite limitations set in motion by the pandemic, veterans still need the vital aid provided.
“There was certainly a concern that we would not have the turnout that we did,” Wallin said in a phone interview on Tuesday morning. “We feel that even though this is a fourth of what we usually have in attendance, the veterans that did come clearly needed some of the most essential and basic services, which is really the whole purpose of this. We anticipated those would be the services that are most in need.”
Wallin said veterans were screened for COVID-19 symptoms and risk factors by VA medical personnel immediately upon arrival, and those who had their VA eligibility confirmed were shuttled to OSDRI’s headquarters. Social distancing and masks were mandatory throughout the event.
Coronavirus forced OSDRI to eliminate or shrink some of the services offered at Stand Down Weekend, including the reduction from three meals to a boxed lunch and switching from a three-day encampment to just two. OSDRI could offer just a few services – housing, employment, legal, benefits, medical and food, clothing and hygiene packages – as opposed to the usual 40 provider tents on site.
“You were given a bracelet and you couldn’t get on a shuttle to get up here without that bracelet, and anyone who tried to get on grounds directly without going through that process did not have a bracelet and was told they needed to go down to the park, so it was a pretty efficient way of handling it and it seemed to work very well,” Wallin said. “We had no issues, really, other than on occasion someone would try to drive up and we just had to explain they had to go to the park.”
Wallin said he received positive feedback from the veterans and service providers who attended, adding that one member of the VA Medical Center’s health care team told him the event was a “morale booster” for those involved.
The process went so smoothly, Wallin said, that OSDRI has chosen to move Stand Down Weekend back to Johnston for the foreseeable future.
“I think that there was a sense that we articulated before we are not going to stand down to COVID and that we were going to continuing moving forward with our mission in a safe manner, and for some many organizations that had sidelined their planned events – whether they be service events or fundraisers, there is a way to move forward, so we felt this was an extremely successful weekend,” Wallin said.
Wallin said he doesn’t see any roadblocks to holding the full version of Stand Down Weekend at Johnston War Memorial Park, saying the only real feature he would cut is the overnight sleeping – which he said has “waned over the years.”
He said the event has become a fixture for two days every year, and Johnston allows the opportunity for more off-sight parking rather than having them “traversing throughout the neighborhoods.”
“Between the increased access to RIPTA, which we had thanks to them and additional shuttle assistance, which the YMCA provided for us, we have a real opportunity to have an off-sight parking area for those who drive here, but an immediate drop-off spot with multiple stops over the course of the day here in Johnston because of the location of RIPTA,” Wallin said.
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