Photo credit: Richard Pinney
Recognizing the need to serve female veterans, Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative (MHVI) started the Women’s Veterans Initiative (WOVIN) in 2014. Founded by women veterans, WOVIN’s mission is to advocate for and educate the increasing number of underserved, at-risk and homeless women veterans and to help those in need help themselves and their families. Female veterans remain the fastest-growing segment of America’s homeless population. A significant percentage of homeless female veterans are survivors of sexual assault and are wary of seeking help at institutions like the VA. WOVIN is conceived as less intimidating, offering services ranging from assistance finding temporary housing to help securing referrals for medical care. Off the Cuff spoke with MHVI and WOVIN Executive Director Debbie Buchanan about WOVIN, its collaborators and the challenge of establishing trust among female veterans.
How does WOVIN work? How do you engage women veterans?
There are several ways we do that. The female veterans that come here for services are oftentimes in a crisis and need direct services right there on the spot. They come in the front door because they need emergency food, they’re being evicted or are at risk of losing their children because of financial situations. We’re able to do an intake process and help them work through those issues and, in many cases, use our own resources to address the crises … If our other partners—veterans’ organizations and community-based organizations—have female veterans that they are unable to serve, they refer them directly to MHVI. We also have a lot of female veterans that reach out to us through our social media. With Facebook, we try to respond back to them within an hour and get them connected to a resource in the area they are calling from or get them to our location to assist them.
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What are the challenges of establishing trust with these women?
Especially with the sexual trauma, the women don’t want to go into an environment where they have to be reminded of what happened to them. So, walking into someplace like the VA or any military organization where there are a lot of male peers is threatening to them. And many female veterans don’t look at themselves as veterans. Most often it’s because they didn’t actually serve in a warzone or they just weren’t accepted by male peers.
Which organizations and agencies do you work with?
Right now, our main partner for WOVIN is UW-Milwaukee’s Military and Veterans Resource Center (MAVRC). I believe they have about 1,400 veterans that are students and 40% of them are female and some don’t want to go into MAVRC because it’s such a male-dominated environment. So, we’ve decided that by partnering, we could serve their female veterans and their students here at our offices. We work closely with the Department of Workforce Development’s veteran division, which helps veterans translate their skills and find them employment. We may have a veteran that is experiencing domestic violence so we work closely with Sojourner Family Peace Center. And, of course, the VA system and veteran services organizations.
How would you describe the need for services for female veterans in the Milwaukee area?
We serve throughout the state of Wisconsin, mainly in the five-county area. Definitely, the greatest need is affordable housing. Many of our female veterans that come back home are single parents and they’re trying to integrate into the community and find sustainable employment. It’s often not enough to cover rent. And if they don’t qualify for rental assistance they don’t really have any other avenues for housing and are most often evicted time and time again because they can’t maintain the stability in the home. Homeless women are a growing population among female veterans and there is a definite need for affordable housing.
To learn more about the Women’s Veterans Initiative, call 414-257-4111 or visit mkehomelessvets.org/program-wovin.htm.
