Hudson Valley Veterans just received some good news—and financial help.
The Westchester Community Opportunity Program (WestCOP) is slated to receive a renewal grant of $936,025. The money will be used to provide support services for 750 veteran households in the region.
The support services are aimed at helping low-income vets by providing health care, transportation, financial planning, child care services and more.
"We view this renewal grant as recognition of the work we do and the accomplishments we have made," said Winston Ross, Executive Director of WestCOP. "We plan to continue to work in the Hudson Valley to help veterans and their families get the support they need."
Though no longer officially connected to WestCOP, I remain an advocate for the people WestCOP serves, though often failing to protect. I remain the poor person's representative in times when contracts, under management decisions, act in contradiction to obtaining highest moral standards. It is imperative that not just "homeless" veterans validate how this contract and others like it, truly provide the levels of service that meet their needs and honor their dignity. We must all in fact “micro-manage” the funds earmarked for Veterans and the poor as I and many others have committed to do. Someone within WestCOP is not the person that should be telling Veterans how well the money is being spent. Narratives outside the confines of contract compliance are necessary to ensure that service is more than a computed number. We are required to protect Veterans as Veterans protected us..with their lives.