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Drug-Free Workforce Promising Practice
"Partnerships are key to our graduates’ success—they help residents find and keep jobs, stay healthy and become productive, drug-free members of the community."
-Colonel Charles Williams
Executive Director
Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training
Established in 1993, the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET) is a nonprofit organization that provides homeless and other veterans in need with day drop-in services, emergency and transitional housing, case management and substance abuse and mental health counseling, health care and education and employment services.
During the first 60 days of MCVET’s Emergency Shelter program, each resident is assigned to a case manager and attends daily addiction recovery classes. Residents receive individual counseling and onsite assistance for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse disorders and family problems. They are also assigned to a benefits counselor who assists them with VA entitlements. A peer assessment performed by MCVET’s Education, Training and Employment program, which helps participants set employment goals and education and training needs, is also conducted during this initial period.
After the first 60 days, residents may move to the Transitional Housing Program, which requires attendance at life skills and substance abuse recovery classes and support group meetings. With the assistance of case managers, they must also create an Individual Services Strategy (ISS), a long-range plan used to outline education, employment and housing goals and develop and document strategies for staying drug free.
MCVET’s comprehensive employment services, developed and implemented in partnership with Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations (DLLR), includes intensive skill development, job search, labor market information, assisted placement and job preparation workshops, including resume preparation and interview skills training.
Currently, MCVET serves more than 250 veterans daily. In its short history, MCVET has received significant attention from the Veterans Administration (VA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which declared MCVET the national model for seamless services to homeless veterans.
Strategic partners in the MCVET program include Federal and local government agencies (DOL, VA, HUD, Maryland DLLR and the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development) and national and local nonprofit organizations (United Way of Maryland, Maryland Public Television, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars). MCVET also receives support from several Baltimore businesses.
Want to learn more?
Colonel Charles Williams
Executive Director
MCVET
301 North High Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410) 576-9626
E-mail: cwilliams@mcvet.org
Internet: www.mcvet.org
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