More last-resort aid coming to West Valley veterans

By Jason Stone
Mail | X: @thestonecave

A little more money is going toward helping local veterans in need for things like rent and utilities, thanks to the Maricopa County Community College District Foundation.

Surprise will be reimbursed up to $24,370 this fiscal year for services it provides to veterans at its new Surprise Community and Resource Center in the Original Town Site at 12641 W. Santa Fe Drive.

The community college district gives Surprise some grant money each year to serve all West Valley veterans.

Last year, the city was reimbursed for $18,000 for helping serve 18 veteran households with various day-to-day expenses after other avenues of help were exhausted.

“When all the other resources run out, (veterans) can come to the city of Surprise if their utilities are getting turned off or need a car repair to get back to work,” Mayor Kevin Sartor said at the Oct. 6 city council meeting before it voted to accept the funding.

This year, the college district added on a little bit more funding, which means more families with hardships could be served.

Surprise’s involvement in serving veterans started around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. West Valley cities joined together right before it to co-invest in the West Valley Veterans Success Center, which was next to Luke Air Force Base.

But the center shuttered when the pandemic hit, and Surprise took the lead by absorbing what became the West Valley Veteran Success Center into the old Surprise Resource Center.

Surprise hired a full-time veteran benefit counselor from the Arizona Department of Veterans Services, and the Arizona Coalition for Military Families also paid for a part-time AmeriCorps worker in Surprise, said Seth Dyson, director of the Surprise Human Services and Community Vitality Department.

“What that did was allow us to serve veterans in a more intentional, specific way, especially those veterans that might have needed a little bit of help,” Dyson told the city council.

A manager of Dyson’s department is staffing the Community and Resource Center every day to assist the Department of Veterans’ Services staff and the veteran resource navigator provide services.

The college district’s board of directors decides where to provide funding each fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30.

Jason Stone can be reached at jstone@iniusa.org. Submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.