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About Us

To meet our broad mission statement, it was important to involve as many members of the community as possible. The more the initiative was publicized, the more members of the community wanted to be involved.

Purple Heart Veteran Carl Schnock was elected President and a management team was selected. Carl offered that the Outreach name needed to be changed and suggested that the organization change its name to WAVE (Welcome All Veterans Everywhere). The Board of Directors and members who attended the meeting agreed that the new name was explanatory of the organization’s mission.

During the early part of 2014, the Board determined that the population of veterans in Douglas County numbered 5,606 – based on the official census of 2010.  So Veterans actually make up about 12 percent of our population (out of 46,997 total).  The large number of Veterans who live in Douglas County surprised the committee, and confirmed the impression that Veterans wants and needs had been largely ignored in Douglas County

Helping Veterans

By January of 2014, the Committee had filed its incorporation papers and was researching the process for becoming a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501c3. At the same time, board member Debbie Posnien (Executive Director of the Douglas County Suicide Prevention Network) and Cheryl Bricker (Executive Director of the Partnership of Community Resources) offered their organizations and headquarters as a place for WAVE to meet.

With a stable meeting place, the organization focused on getting into action. The Committee started listening to testimonials from Veterans of Vietnam and Desert Storm. It became obvious that the same Veterans issues that were being seen across the nation existed in Douglas County as well. Veterans were being denied care based on their disabilities incurred while in the service, discharged with mental health issues, and those with PTSD were largely ignored.

Surveys of the VA Clinic revealed that Veterans who are receiving care are satisfied with the care that they receive.  But there is no data on Veterans who have been denied care, or are awating care.  In other words, the issue is access to the system itself, rather than the level of care that it provides.  WAVE is working to help Veterans obtain the care that they earned and were promised.
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