Free Legal Clinic Focuses on Services for Veterans
FARMINGTON A free event will provide services and information to veterans on Wednesday in Shiprock.
The Veterans Justice Project is an event where veterans and active duty and reserve military personnel as well as their spouses or partners, can get their legal questions answered by attorneys and learn about useful resources.
It is a project organized by DNA People’s Legal Services, which is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal aid to individuals whose income falls at or below the federal poverty line.
The event will offer information and services from various programs at the federal, state and tribal levels.
The purpose of the event is to provide efficient service to veterans as well as informing them about the various services they could utilize, said Cathryn Abeyta, a program coordinator with DNA People’s Legal Services’ Volunteer Lawyer Program.
It also helps veterans in finding out if they qualify for services beyond those offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Abeyta said.
The event is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the Shiprock Chapter house. There will be Navajo translators available at the event.
Another focus of the event is bringing some of the services provided by the VA in Albuquerque to the local area, Abeyta said.
There are a number of veterans in San Juan County who have the burden of traveling to Albuquerque to seek these services and this is one way to ease that problem, she said.
This is the latest event under the Veterans Justice Project, which brings in personnel from the VA to help veterans apply for services, such as replacing lost DD-214s discharge papers needed to process claims or applying for non-VA health care programs.
The project has recently partnered with the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services to expand the number of organizations that provide services, Abeyta said.
“We need to take care of our people and our veterans,” she said.
The project’s last event was held in August at San Juan College in Farmington.
Abeyta said the goal is to have the events six or eight times a year.
TJ Holgate, executive director of DNA People’s Legal Services, said the clinic provides the opportunity for veterans to learn more about the services they are entitled to receive. It also provides legal services to the community.
“It’s my hope people can learn about these services,” Holgate said.
Tags: Veterans News
