When Jonathan Rosamond visited veterans legal clinics created by the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program he noticed an absence of younger veterans like himself.
There were veterans who served in Vietnam and Korea and a few from the Iraq War, but an absence of veterans from recent combat in Afghanistan troubled the co-chair of the Dallas Bar Association‘s Veterans Outreach Subcommittee.
“I know from my service that some of those folks need help because they have difficulty obtaining jobs,” said Rosamond, a veteran of the Army JAG Corps. “I wondered if maybe the reason we weren’t reaching them is we didn’t have an online presence.”
Rosamond said the subcommittee has had tremendous success getting attorneys to volunteer at the clinics, which are hosted the first Friday of every month, except holidays, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the Veterans Resource Center, 4900 S. Lancaster Road in Dallas. The subcommittee often has firms that sponsor each month’s clinic. A group of lawyers from that firm provides most of the support for the event.
With volunteerism rolling along, Rosamond and the subcommittee began to believe they needed another way to reach out to veterans, perhaps younger ones, who may not know about the clinic. The solution: the group created an online brochure that is printable so the subcommittee can distribute it in places veterans may frequent, but it also provides a needed web presence, Rosamond said.
“It’s a great way of reaching both folks looking online for assistance, but also be able to print out physical copies and place those in libraries, churches, VFWs and the VA itself,” he said.
For information on veterans legal clinics in other cities, or details on the State Bar’s Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans program, visit texasbar.com/veterans.