Pueblo's Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center giving military vets 'a hand up'
Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center, a Colorado Springs-based organization, opened an extension office inside St. Mary-Corwin Hospital's Medical Arts Building last November after identifying a significant need for veteran's services in Pueblo.
Located at 1925 E. Orman Ave., Suite 156, the Pueblo extension office serves veterans, active-duty military members and military families in three core areas: transition and employment, military veteran and family services and health and wellness. Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center serves clients regardless of military branch, era of service, length of service and discharge status.
"If someone is trying to rebuild their life and maybe they had a less than honorable discharge in the past, that doesn't matter ... We take veterans in all shapes and sizes and we just try to help give them a hand up," said Lindsey Caroon, communications director for Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center.
Assistance finding employment is among the most common reasons veterans contact Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center. Services associated with transition and employment offered by the center include peer navigator counseling, resume writing workshops, job interview workshops, industry days, career fairs and networking events.
"Our veterans are coming to Mount Carmel and going to their transition and employment services, we see that they're getting jobs that have a livable wage," Caroon said. "These are not minimum-wage jobs where they can't provide for a family. These are jobs where they can adequately provide for their family and thrive in the local community."
Veterans at Colorado Springs and Pueblo locations who receive transition and employment assistance make an average of $34.55 per hour, according an impact study conducted through Aug. 31, 2022. Mount Carmel has served more than 3,440 clients seeking employment assistance and the Pueblo location has 11 clients actively seeking employment assistance as of Sept. 14, Caroon said.
On the first and third Wednesday of each month, Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center partners with Care and Share Food Bank to host a food distribution in the parking lot outside St. Mary-Corwin Hospital. The food distribution starts at 10 a.m. and ends after all supplies are distributed.
Additional services offered by Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center include financial assistance for essential needs like utility payments, financial coaching, mental health counseling, life coaching, tai chi, yoga and art therapy classes. The organization is open to community volunteers for the bimonthly food distribution and other community events.
Theresa Kosak is a military family member who has benefitted from services at Mount Carmel Veterans Center's Pueblo office. She is the daughter of William Hegler Sr., a Navy veteran who served during World War II and the Korean War. Hegler and his three brothers grew up in a coal camp outside Del Carbon.
"It is such a great community outreach and done with dignity," Kosak said. "It is consistently run with precision. Not only that ... they are all so empathetic to those they are serving.
"My father served as well as his brothers. I only wish he was alive to come and partake of what is offered at Mount Carmel. When he was alive, there was no one to go to for assistance for vets."
For more information about services community members may visit the Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center website, veteranscenter.org, or contact Pueblo Operations Manager Sal Katz at skatz@mtcarmelcenter.org.
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Veterans service center helps give Pueblo military vets 'a hand up'
