Veterans find hope at VCP

“I was told to find Ash with the purple hair because she could help me,” said a veteran as he approached Ash Wallis, director of Veteran Support Services at Veterans Community Project. 

At the time, the veteran didn’t know who Wallis was. He simply knew he needed help and approached the VCP Mobile Outreach van parked at Deacons’ Closet in Boulder one Saturday afternoon with only a name and some hope to guide him. 

This man lived in the Nederland and didn’t know what to do. He needed help but wasn’t able to get the services he needed. Wallis took his information and handed him some temporary supplies. She promised to keep in touch especially as VCP hosted outreach days in Nederland.

The VCP group filled a box full of winter items for the man and tried to reach out several times. They lost touch until the man showed up again for another outreach event a year later.

He had been in rehab to overcome drug addiction and was ready to start a new life. He no longer wanted the life he had been living and knew he could find help at VCP. He had set goals and started on the path to accomplish them. A few months later, he was given an opportunity to move into one of the tiny homes at the VCP Veterans Village in Longmont.

“If you had told me a year ago that something like this existed and I would be a part of it, I wouldn’t have believed you. To be here now is just an incredible opportunity,” the man told Wallis. 

This is one of many stories that Wallis and the staff at VCP have from veterans who have found a family at VCP. 

VCP was founded in 2016 by Bryan Meyer (U.S. Marine Corps), Brandon Mixon (U.S. Army), Vincent Morales (U.S. Army) and Mark Solomon (U.S. Navy) in Kansas City, Missouri. The four founders are all combat veterans. In Kansas City, there is a hotline that routes crisis calls to different departments and local nonprofits that can help. One of the founders took it upon himself to answer the calls for veterans in crisis, Solomon said. 

“He was getting tired of saying no to veterans because there was no money … there was no funding for that particular need,” Solomon said on what inspired the creation of VCP. The founder decided he wanted to create an organization that would say yes to veterans. 

The nonprofit grew after gathering connections throughout Kansas City which inspired the idea of creating villages of tiny houses for veterans. Initially, the founders knew that their goal was to house veterans, but they soon realized that more services were needed.

Solomon said there are countless stories from the founding days of the organization that regale tales of veterans who needed more than just housing. Some of them needed mental health services, connections to stable food services, help with their military status, financial assistance and much more. It was then that the founders realized VCP needed to be more than just an organization that housed veterans, it needed to become a “one-stop-shop” for all of the veterans’ needs with housing being only a small part of that, Solomon said. 

“If you talk to folks who do this — work with the general homeless population — I think what you will find is that there is a housing first model — and no one argues that that isn’t important — but it tends to stop there in some cases … We’ve developed this whole process around veterans support services,” he said. 

Wallis personally understands the needs the veterans she assists face. Seven years ago, Wallis found herself close to homelessness. She didn’t know what to do and reached out to her local Veterans Affairs office in a cry of desperation. She was fortunate enough to connect with the services she needed but the moment left an eternal mark on her that she has taken into her work at VCP. 

“I believe in second chances, in third chances, in healing and growth,” Wallis said. “Having that kind of impact, small or large, I fell in love with it.”

She has used that understanding as she approaches veterans. A lover of stories and a writer in her own right, Wallis knows she has a superpower by just listening to the stories of others. 

One of the stories turned into much more. Michael Falcon is a U.S. Navy veteran and is one of the veterans selected to live in VCP’s Veterans Village. He lost his apartment in April and heard about the tiny homes for veterans. He began doing his own research until he was connected with VCP. 

Falcon had been homeless before losing his apartment. He spent 27 years living on the streets or staying with friends. His health has suffered over the years and he now requires medications. 

“I’ve got a bunch of medical problems, so because of those me being homeless would actually be kinda like a death sentence,” he said. “If I’m homeless, it makes it more difficult to get my meds, not that it's impossible, but it is a lot more difficult.” 

Through VCP, Falcon found a community. He said he is more comfortable with people who have served in the military. 

“Being homeless that long, does change you mentally. It’s a constant battle,” Falcon said. “When I started talking to them here (VCP), it became more and more evident that this was the best place for me … The people have been really supportive. They actually care, they actually want to help.” 

One day Falcon wants to move out of VCP and get another apartment, however, he knows he has a long way to go. Through VCP he said he has been able to set goals to clean up his financial debt and balance his health issues. The thing he values the most is that VCP allows him to meet his goals on his own timeline, not one established by others, he said.

Falcon’s story is only one of many, Wallis said. It is through these stories that Wallis finds a sense of fulfillment when she is able to connect veterans to a life that reminds them to hope again.

“Listening to people’s stories, you learn a lot about who they are, what they love, where they come from and seeing people's eyes light up when they talk about a specific thing such as a memory of fishing,” Wallis said. 

Wallis said she finds the details in the stories and finds a way to connect that person with joy.

“It does not matter how small it is, if we are able to hear a story and find that little nugget that can help us improve their quality of life and allow them to have joy — everyone deserves to have some joy — we want to provide that as well,” she said. 

VCP works to help the whole person by welcoming veterans into a new, positive community to remind the people they serve that they are not alone or forgotten, and that there is hope in this world and people around to help them obtain it.