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VETS News Release: [09/15/2004]
Contact Name: Mike
Biddle
Phone Number: (202) 693-5051
Labor Department
Official Presents $293,100 Check to St. Patrick Center to Help Homeless
Veterans Find Jobs
Faith-based Group Last Year Helped 160 Find Jobs
ST. LOUIS—A U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) official
presented a $293,100 check to the executive director of St. Patrick Center here
today to help homeless veterans find good jobs under the Homeless Veterans
Reintegration Program (HVRP).
“This is the federal government’s hallmark program for helping
homeless veterans,” said Frederico Juarbe, Jr., assistant secretary of
labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS), in presenting
the check to Dan Buck, the center’s executive director. “St. Patrick
is a powerful force in this effort, and this community should take pride in the
work they do.”
Juarbe also cited two other VETS efforts that together with HVRP help
veterans in many ways. “The agency enforces the Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Act of 1994, which safeguards the jobs and benefits
of citizen-soldiers returning to civilian life. It is also helping to set up an
interagency pilot effort, REALifelines, which will create a seamless network
ensuring wounded and injured veterans are employed, reemployed or
retrained,” said Juarbe.
Juarbe was accompanied by Brent Orrell, the director of DOL’s
Center for Faith Based and Community Initiatives, which seeks to empower
faith-based and community organizations as they help their neighbors enter,
succeed and thrive in the workforce. “St. Patrick Center has brought hope
and opportunity to homeless veterans in St. Louis, and we are privileged to
stand with them as they serve their community,” said Orrell. “St.
Patrick Center is part of the Army of Compassion that President Bush had in
mind when he first launched the Faith-Based and Community Initiative.”
Through last year’s HVRP grant, St. Patrick helped 160 homeless
veterans find jobs. Equally impressive is that more than 60 percent of these
veterans were still employed in these jobs after six months, one of the highest
rates in the country.
Under HVRP, VETS has awarded $17 million in 78 grants in 31 states this
year that will provide education, training and counseling services to more than
12,000 homeless veterans. This is expected to help more than 8,000 members of
this population find jobs.
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