BELLE FOURCHE - One of the first signups for the Women of War homeless women veterans' residential training center in Belle Fourche already was going to Black Hills State University.

But she was either living in her car or on friends' couches while attending classes.

Marlene Marvin, director of operations for the new Veterans Administration funded private job training facility, said it was just luck that brought the woman to the new Belle Fourche center.

"We're missing women who are not in the VA system," she said.

She told potential volunteers at a meeting Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, that the information problem wasn't obvious until the center received VA funding approval to accept applicants.

Marvin said that a second problem is that some women may not consider themselves homeless if they have a warm place to sleep.

"The VA definition of homeless is broad," she said. "Even couch surfing with friends and relatives or on the brink of eviction qualifies."

She said, "We have a lot of female veterans in our area who don't know they qualify."

Some of the women will have to remain anonymous in any news media, she said, because of danger from their background, including domestic violence.

"Most of our applicants have been suffering PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), domestic violence and sexual trauma," she said. "Belle Fourche offers that quiet, stable facility for them to heal."

Two applicants accepted for the program are from urban areas outside the 11-state area, but have connections to this area, she said. "They have to get out of the traffic, the noise."

Many of the women veterans in younger age groups are suffering from PTSD related to service in war theaters such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

She said she is not sure of the older women who have applied. "We don't have access to their VA records."

Anxiety and depression because of homelessness as well as PTSD are why a homelike environment and counseling are part of the WOW program.

The Belle Fourche setting also is an advantage, Marvin said. "We are close to amenities that cities provide, but we are a rural setting that is private."

She said there is a staff of 15, full and part time. That includes full-time staffing of the WOW campus, case management and other services."

Volunteers at the Saturday meeting could offer help with the thrift store in downtown Belle Fourche, with donation work, furniture and clothing pickups, outreach in the area and on tribal reservations, being on-call staff and weekend staff at the campus, food preparation, campus activities, mentors with specialized skills, day trips, transportation and child care.

"We plan four-hour volunteer shifts in the campus office around the clock, every day," she said. "With residential care, it's women only for our volunteers."

Because the center is considered transitional living as well as for job training, Marvin said the goal is to help women be prepared for independent living in the job market.

Marvin told prospective volunteers, including women veterans from the area, that they need to consider that not all the women may have had a pleasant military experience.

She said her years in the Marine Corps were a good personal experience, but that she has met some women veterans who felt the military had been a bad experience.