Latest / Arizona Unscripted / Episode 13: 🌵 Arizona Unscripted - Let's celebrate our Veterans!
Transcript
- Arizona Unscripted: Yeah. Welcome to Arizona Unscripted. I'm your host, Bart, alongside my wonderful co-hosts Diane and Jim. Hello guys. How are you doing? ⁓ good morning. Good morning. Arizona Scripted is all about Arizona. It's peoples, places, events, and local issues that shape our everyday lives. From small towns to big cities. We know all about those. From hidden gems and great local food to history, culture, and challenges facing our communities. We're here to have real conversations about Arizona with real Arizona. So Our goal is simple. Celebrate what makes Arizona unique while bringing together voices from every corner of the state. So whether you're a lifelong resident, newcomer, or someone who just loves Arizona like all of us, we hope you'll feel right at home. So grab a cup of coffee or something cool. Sit back and join us as we explore the people, places, and stories that make Arizona one of the most fascinating states in America. So welcome to Arizona Unscripted. With that little intro, I will pass it over to my Great co-host Diane here. Go ahead, Diane. Hey, thanks, Bart. And thank you, Jim, for being back here. ⁓ we're also super excited to have Joan come back. We had a very powerful podcast for Memorial Day. ⁓ and we had a lot of people that said, Hey, we want to know more. And so we're so thankful to have you here, Joan. And I am going to turn it over to you to introduce our guest. Thank you, Diane. I met David ⁓ some years ago. He's been a an advocate for veterans in ⁓ at the state of Arizona for a long time and not just an advocate but a doer. And currently currently we s both serve on a bipartisan veteran caucus board. and ⁓ he has done some amazing things to make life better for veterans in his area and in the whole state of Arizona. I would prefer that David talk about the things that he has done. Please, David. Well, thank you. Appreciate that wonderful ⁓ introduction. And it's good to see you again, Joan, as always. and ⁓ my name is David Lucier. ⁓ I'm a US Army Special Forces Vietnam Combat Veteran. ⁓ I've got civilian service in both Iraq and Afghanistan from about 2003 to 2008. ⁓ I'm a member of the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame. ⁓ I've started my own nonprofit ⁓ for certain activities. ⁓ and and how we might be able to ⁓ push forward certain legislation. ⁓ and so I guess you know going to starting off at you know the 30,000 foot level ⁓ the vision has been to establish Arizona as the most veteran supportive state in the nation in education and training. jobs and economic opportunity and health and wellness. Those are what I call the three circles of success. And if you have those, then you will be successful. ⁓ And so I st ⁓ you know, when you when you you you go back and you look at what's going on, a lot has been done ⁓ at the both the state and the federal level. ⁓ That's not to say that, you know, ⁓ nothing, you know, nothing's gotten done. A lot has gotten done. But if you start from the proposition that we need to meet the demand, and you can put whatever subtitle you want under that, whether it's education and training, whether it's ⁓ you know wellness, whether it's you know ⁓ a job, any of those, we have to start looking at the base, and that call that that calls for the demand. What is our demand? So we know that housing and homelessness in the veterans community is bad. Well, what's the demand? And we do have a lot going on in that area, but what's the demand? How many people, you know, come on board with you know housing needs? ⁓ and there's a whole continuum. And this is true of all these segments, whether it's education and training, whether it's jobs and economic opportunity, whether it's health and wellness, there's always a continuum. So for instance, ⁓ when I first got started. I focused on education. What was the, you know, what was the demand there? Well we had we had about a thousand veterans going to school at ASU. I I'm I'm I'm a Sun Devil. Go devil. And so but I knew you know, but but I I my my personal perspective was I wanted more people coming to ASU because they were get they could get a really good education. Big problem. ⁓ when people from out of state would come here they would pay ten thousand dollars more than the in state rent. ⁓ my gosh. Yeah the other problem was is that that extra ten thousand dollars was ⁓ not covered by the GI Bill. So that was a problem. So step number one, let's put everybody on a a level playing field. And we got the first one of the first ⁓ in state tuition bills for veterans. ⁓ that they're ⁓ that was ⁓ two thousand twelve, I think. And so ⁓ so now people could come to Arizona and get the immediate in-state rate for their for their university. Which they did. Well, as it turns out, it was such a great program. The feds picked it up, and there were a couple other states that did this, and now it's federal law. So now if you're a veteran, you're going to a state funded, you know, a a state university. public university or college, you get the in state rate immediately. So that was step one. And so we were very successful in that. Number two was create a a model for veteran success at the university level of higher education. So I went to Dr. Crow. He didn't know me from Adam. I walked up to him at a at a public event, introduced myself, and he almost immediately said, call my office, let's meet And I thought he was just blowing me off. It was so quick. so I called a few days later, and the and the ⁓ the receptionist said, ⁓ Mr. Lucier, we were expecting your call. And so we made ⁓ made a date, and I walked in and and ⁓ unbeknownst to me, there was Dr. Crow and his entire executive staff. And I had this little piece of paper, and I said, Well, here, if you want to be the number one, you know, veteran university, veteran supportive university in the country. Do these, I don't know, 12 or 15 things. And there was a laundry list. And and ⁓ we looked it over, talked about it, and I thought, you know, a couple of years for it to ⁓ attain success. He had everything done and more in four months. Wow. And so ⁓ the result of that with the in-state tuition bill and and his modeling ⁓ for veteran success, went from under a thousand veterans going to ASU. to over twenty two thousand today. Wow, that's fantastic. So that's that's and so this stuff can get done. But we I think one of the one of the guiding principles here is we have to approach leadership. Yeah. ⁓ David's the Pooch's name. Well it must it must go across the entire it goes across the entire state. So that means you have yeah other rural counties and and things like that that need to have the same issues. How do you deal with with those situations? I mean is it like Well they they they they took that basic they they followed the you know the old saying is you know somebody catches co you know sneezes and everybody else catches cold. This is this is one of those things where that's why we f well aside from the fact that I'm a Sun Devil, but ⁓ ASU is one of the you know the largest research ⁓ in ⁓ in ⁓ institutions higher learning in the country. And so if if ASU does something, people will follow. And they did at scale. I mean obviously they don't have 20, you know, each our community colleges and that across the state and our other three universities don't have that that ⁓ that scale, but they can pick and choose. There's a menu there and and and they can they they can and they do. ⁓ follow those ⁓ those ⁓ those models. So I like creating models ⁓ because models because I I don't have I got a lot of good ideas. I don't even got the money. And so I ⁓ ask people to participate. And in this particular case ASU really participated and and so I'm I'm I couldn't be you know more joyful over what we've done there. And those are lasting investments. And that's the other thing. I I I'm I'm really, really ⁓ like to do and is is is make sure that there's impact and lasting ⁓ a lasting impact. And so ⁓ the that ⁓ the ASU experiment ⁓ covered all those bases. So those people are gonna come to Arizona, they're gonna participate in our in our communities, and and they're gonna they're they're gonna be, you know, ⁓ people who who provide ⁓ for the betterment of the community all the way around. So that that's that's kind of one example. And and ⁓ that that's an example where we've been very, very successful. So you know the next step is ⁓ is is you know employment and and job and workforce. And so we're working on those kind of programs. We've we've been successful in working with the ⁓ Arizona Veterans, ⁓ Southwest Veterans Chamber of Commerce, other chambers. ⁓ institutions, a lot of large companies now have ⁓ what they call veteran affinity groups inside their companies, which ⁓ not only help ⁓ and direct ⁓ recruitment, but also retention and advancement. ⁓ and so how do people get a hold of your organization? Is this all through probably through your organization? So you how do you people get a hold of you or your organization and learn learn about these different ⁓ aspects? Well, they can always call me. I'm pretty gettable. ⁓ my email address is out there. ⁓ I d I have a Facebook page. ⁓ you can look me up on Facebook. It's got all the contact information. And depending on what you need as far as education or jobs or wellness, I can direct you. ⁓ 'cause I I just know I've I've I've been in this space for now well since about 2012. Yes. And so ⁓ you meet a lot of people along the way, you know a lot of organizations. And and so now what I'm gonna tell you real quickly is that ⁓ we we ⁓ you know we're we're building again models and and ⁓ enterprises to to address these on a more statewide and a federal level. And so we're we're rolling that out slowly but surely, but you know, it's been a long pull. Is there a is there a is there a nonprofit name, like a name of people can search on the web or as well, or is it ⁓ well there's ⁓ what I always do is direct people to you know two two places to get started, depending on no matter what you need. Yeah, yeah. There's the ⁓ veterans and ⁓ veterans affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, Google that and that'll take you to the federal site. ⁓ but if you need something more local. ⁓ you can you can ⁓ dial into the Arizona Department of Veteran Services. That's a great thank you. Now in a in in addition to that, we're ⁓ we're we're building out a coalition of veteran service organizations. And right now it's called the Unified Arizona Veterans. Now ⁓ and and so what we're we're we're doing is we're we're revising a little bit on that. ⁓ to to bring in ⁓ more elements and to cover more things but ⁓ that's that's the first step and talk to joan a little bit about it and some of the other veteran leaders so yeah and what and what are some of the issues that you guys are facing you sound like you need more resources it sounds like to me like resources no David ⁓ David you know one of the things that you were very involved with was the Fisher house in Phoenix. Well that comes under yeah for me personally ⁓ I'm involved in a thing called the Fisher House, which is a ⁓ a comfort home for ⁓ which is free to veterans and their families as they undergo treatment at the Phoenix VA. ⁓ wow. And it's all free. It's it's 16 units, various sizes from singles, doubles, and roll aways. Wow. It's got a common kitchen, ⁓ a food pantry. ⁓ there's ⁓ there will be, you know, and we're in the middle of ⁓ constructing that right now. So ⁓ It's it's that again's been a long pull, a lot of obstacles along the way. But the Fisher House Foundation, we've been working with them and the ⁓ the Phoenix VA ⁓ in combination ⁓ with the Friends of Fisher House Phoenix, which is ⁓ five my 501c3, and and ⁓ putting all those pieces together so that ⁓ we'll have a 16-unit Fisher House ⁓ comfort home ⁓ probably within the next two years. So we're we're pretty ⁓ pretty thrilled about and there are a hundred of them across the country and across the across the globe. So Fisher House Foundation, lovely people. They know what they're doing. Yeah, that's ⁓ with them. That's great. That's Fisher House for those that don't know, it's Fisherhouse dot org, right? Fisherhouse dot org, I believe. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I mean for for our for audience members maybe listening in here, they wanna wanna pick and really I mean this covers all ages, all ages of veterans, right? This isn't this is from Yeah, we're we're not we're not we don't we don't limit ourselves to gender, ⁓ generation, ⁓ race. If you're a veteran, you know, you're gonna get some help. And I can dri or I can direct you to where you need to get help. I mean, and like a lot of us, I mean, facing some of these upcoming ⁓ especially economic challenges, right? Because the cost of everything is going up in incredibly fast. So I mean the veterans, ⁓ because it takes time. The veteran associations, it's not like it's a overnight ⁓ changes are are good are handled well because they they take time to process. They really and so for so for our veterans out there, we love you and we we support you. And please go to the Fisher house, check out these different things. And David, we really think your work is ⁓ I don't can I say might you give me goosebumps thinking about it. My dad was in ⁓ is in was in the Korean War and I learned a lot from him and he he told me some things that were hair raising. A couple of a couple of my ⁓ my father in law was ⁓ was a bombardier in World War II and he told me some incredible stories. I don't know. So veterans, thank you so much. can I say yeah ⁓ we owe so much to our veterans. Can we add on to the economic impact of veterans today in Arizona? Yes. And the economic impact based on their ⁓ like I get I I get some benefits because I'm ⁓ You know, I've kind of been through the mill and ⁓ so I've I've I've I've made some claims for disability and all that kind of stuff. But as a whole, when it comes to all the benefits that veterans bring to Arizona, right now today it it it it ⁓ it amounts to 1.2 billion dollars annually and growing. Wow. So the economic impact of that is 2.4 billion dollars. on our economy. So that's why we're encouraging veterans to come here, but we want the infrastructure to support them and make sure that they're successful. ⁓ my gosh. Incredible. So incredible. Thank you for that work that you're doing. And you know, we as a community owe you all so much. And we want to use our voices to be able to support our veterans as well. So I'm guessing Always donations, right? Are probably helpful, but also having conversations in our communities about are we doing enough for our veterans? And I know one of the things that came up on the previous podcast was how do we support veterans that might be facing homelessness and we would love to hear from you. We've got a few minutes left here. How do we how do we support that work? Well there there's a there's a number of organizations out there that are involved in housing and homelessness. ⁓ and and and we're getting better at it. But that's a again. Let's look at the demand. And the demand far outstrips the resources. So research I mean, if you look at ⁓ US vets or or ⁓ manna house or things like that, and they're they're all over the all over the state. ⁓ that that are providing housing and home ⁓ homes for for ⁓ for for veterans. And so again, there's a continuum of care. We would prefer to catch the veteran ⁓ before they go homeless. So if they're having a a rental issue or a mortgage issue, how do we how do we address that right now to keep the veteran in their homes? Mm-hmm. That's the that that's the easiest and the quickest. It goes all the way to the other end of the spectrum where maybe there's issues, violence, anger, drug use, ⁓ alcohol abuse. You have to you know, ⁓ look at those issues. We get ⁓ and so and everything in between, you know, is it small housing, is it multi ho multi-unit housing, is it, you know, a single family dwelling, is it rental, is it is it home ownership? ⁓ is it something in between? So tons and tons of of of things like that. And that's where the ⁓ the the VA and the Arizona Department of Veterans Services can guide you. So they have ⁓ they they know the resources. One of the one of the big pushes we're doing now is enrollment in the BA Medical ⁓ Medical ⁓ Center. You don't have to have anything wrong with you, but if you're a veteran, you're eligible to enroll. And that's hugely, hugely important. And from there, you can be referred to the type and the kind of help that you need, regardless of what it is. I mean, you can't think of a You can't you shouldn't be able to think of a problem that that you you you have that they they don't have resources for you. And that's true on the state level as well. So ⁓ that that's what I would I would ⁓ what they call a veteran benefit counselor, both at the VA level and the state level, are there to help guide and navigate you through the system and get you the resources you need. Resources, let's talk about resources. A lot has been being done, ⁓ no doubt. And I am not complaining about that one bit. But the demand is here and the resources are somewhere around here. And we need to fill that gap. And we need to do it on a on a on a ⁓ you know just a ⁓ consolidated basis. We need the private sector, the nonprofit, the for-profit, the government, the non-government, ⁓ you know, faith-based. I mean, you just can you can go on and on and on. But we need those people all together singing the same song, coming off the same sheet of paper, but they have an expertise maybe in one area. And that's where we want, you know, that's where we want to be able to help them maximize their resources. ⁓ and so that's gonna that's gonna take so we need more resources. ⁓ and and ⁓ you know, and not to get I I I divide between partisan and political. And this is a political issue. I mean we You know, we swore an oath to serve our country, right we've done. Now we're back and and we're asking for a little bit of help. And so I think that it's on the state and the federal ⁓ and and and our on our communities to do this. And and once we get a little bit better at getting our message out, ⁓ I think that'll be that'll be very, very helpful and and advantageous to everyone. Everybody wins. This is a win-win-win-win-win-win. And you know, with 500,000 veterans in the state, you know, another another 400,000 service members. And now if you combine those two and add their families, you're talking about a million people here in Arizona. Yeah. And that that you know may need some level of help. So ⁓ it's a it's a big task. ⁓ there's a lot going on. ⁓ and and ⁓ I'm I I'd be more than willing to talk. ⁓ further about it and ⁓ come with ⁓ maybe you know some more specific kind of things but seem to me sort of a hello, how are you sort of yeah we'll have to be back for another feeling for what's going on here. Yeah definitely gotta have you back for more in deep in depth in certain areas. It'd be great to have you back on certain you know certain topics of this and get in more depth. ⁓ man what a great ⁓ you you really inspired me. I didn't had no I had no idea. Jim did you have any idea how much the resources I was just gonna ask David if if he's ever worked with the trade unions for veterans because you know they're always looking for people to yes, as a matter of fact, and they and they run some veteran programs. So you can get a there they're available kind of scholarships, if you will, for apprentices and you know, trade skills. And so like the Arizona Department of Veteran Services, if you don't have if you don't have the money to go out and buy boots and a shirt and a pair of pants and a hard hat. And some ⁓ bare minimum tools, they can provide those, get you started. So we want to provide opportunity. I was with the IBEW and they they have programs where they bring veterans in and yep and give them a head start in the apprenticeship programs. Yes. They'll move them ahead a little bit, then people. Yeah. Yeah. We need to fan ⁓ we really need to expand all those items, education and training. And these are you know, education and training is lifelong. It doesn't happen from K to 12 or 12 to you know ⁓ 16, but it's lifelong. It's lifelong learning, lifelong training. And and and ⁓ so it's one of those things that you don't finish at noon. Yeah. Right, right, exactly. David, we would love to have you back because I'd love to hear more about what is being done and how we can help Get the voices of veterans out there and make sure they understand how to plug in ⁓ as well as how we as a community can support that and move this forward because we owe so much to our veterans. And I want to make sure that we are showing up in important and valuable ways. So we will invite you back and I hope you will say yes. And I look forward to it. I'm I'm I'm willing and able. Wonderful. And excited for the opportunity. I just want to thank you all for for ⁓ thinking of me. And ⁓ I don't I think Joan has left the group, but yeah, ⁓ Joan is is one of the the the the really the ⁓ top that and she does with veteran court. ⁓ here's another element, you know, veteran treatment court, ⁓ so that veterans avoid going to jail. And and there was a word you before we started the show, there was a word you gave her basic it was based on who was it a whoa? Yeah, the the ⁓ the ⁓ the army sort of overall you know covers a lot of things. Roger that, copy that, I understand, yeah, let's do it. Is is hu-a. No, no, whoa, yeah. And she's the do-a. And she's the do-a. So there's ⁓ so we need less hoo and more doa. Well thank you, David. We look forward to having you both back on a future episode with us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Look forward to it. Thank you everybody.