Hub City outreach event brings resources to veterans in need

JACKSON, Tenn. — A local outreach event brought various vendors together to meet the needs of veterans.

Veterans of Madison County had the chance to participate in Veterans Outreach at the Jackson-Madison Veterans Service building on North Parkway. Veterans Service Director Reginald Sims said that most veterans don’t know what’s available for them to have, which is why he started this event.

“Vets come in to see me and they’re like, ‘Well, we don’t work, we can’t find a job.’ So, I said ‘Ok, we can get agencies over here.’ They didn’t know they had free healthcare that was provided for them, benefits for us. So I just wanted to get them out and get them and let them know that it’s available. You just gotta come and use it,” said Sims.

Vendors from the Jackson Police Department, West Tennessee Legal Services, the Vet Center and more were available to help attendees know about their resources.

“Our job is to try to help them in any way we can. If we can’t, we’ll try to get them to services that can help them,” said Sims.

Sims knows by experience what it means to have available resources as a veteran being that he served for 28 years himself. He told us that he’s glad to be a veteran.

“Women or men, whoever, I’m just trying to help them. I just want to help, that’s the bottom line. Help them,” said Sims.

County Commissioner for District 3 Ron Kirkland told us that he believes the country owes this service to the veterans.

“Our veterans deserve the support of our government and their help. My hat is off to those who went in as draftees and got sent to Vietnam. At the time, I went in and served on the front lines,” said Kirkland.

There were also free burgers and hotdogs for every veteran.

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