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Stand Down 2006
TAG at Operation Jump Start
Sgt. Brian Mills, 250th Signal Battalion, hands out plates to homeless vets for a free hot lunch.

Volunteers and military joined together at the North Jersey Stand Down, Sept. 9, at Essex County College in Newark and at the South Jersey Stand Down, Sept. 22, at the National Guard Armory in Cherry Hill to provide a ‘hand up … not a hand out’ to New Jersey’s homeless veterans.

Staff Sgt. Japera Talib-Moore, 177th Fighter Wing Medical Group, checks the blood pressure of a homeless vet at the South Jersey Stand Down on Sept. 22, in Cherry Hill.

The Garden State has an estimated 8,000 homeless veterans. The Stand Down programs are designed to provide homeless veterans and their family members with access to healthcare, medical screening, information on veterans benefits, substance abuse counseling, legal and employment services, social services, vocational rehabilitation services, religious counseling, a hot meal, a haircut and winter clothing.  The goal of the program is to bring a wide range of resources together in one location so the veteran can access the various services and recognize that the community is concerned and committed to bringing these services to them.

 

Sgt. 1st Class Patricia Jenkins, 250th Signal Battalion, cooks hamburgers for homeless veterans in a mobile kitchen at the North Jersey Stand Down in Newark on Sept. 9.

 

“Stand Down” derives its name from the military term referring to the temporary removal of exhausted combat troops from the battlefield to a safe place, for rest and recovery.  Stand Down’s are grass-roots, community-based intervention programs to help homeless veterans combat life on the streets.

If you are interested in volunteering for Stand Down or assisting in starting a central Jersey event in 2007,

Call: 1-888-8NJ-VETS

Table of Contents


Volume 32 Number 5
Staff / Information
     
(c) 2006 NJ Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
http://www.nj.gov/military