Stephanie Zarb, an Air Force veteran originally from Redford, recalls how she felt when she first returned home.
"I really struggled for a long time," Zarb said. "It was about six months after I came home, I couldn't find a job, I really didn't know what to do and like most veterans, I called my buddies and said, 'Hey what do I do?'"
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Zarb moved to Seattle and worked for Boeing before returning back to the metro Detroit area. She now is the program manager for the Buddy to Buddy Volunteer Veteran Program.
The program falls under MSPAN, the Military Support Programs and Networks at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Under the program, veterans are trained to offer peer support and connect veterans to resources. It was initially designed to help post-9/11 service members, but Buddy To Buddy helps every veteran who asks for assistance.
Paul Jingozian, a Vietnam veteran, is one of the volunteer veterans helping other veterans.
"I think it's really beneficial because when I came back, I came back to people that were protesting, I came back to nothing," Jingozian said.
Ron Springer also served in Vietnam and is motivated to help veterans so they never feel how he and other veterans did at that time.
"I wanted to help them because we didn't receive help coming home from Vietnam, we got a reception that nobody would ever hope for again," Springer said.
Springer said the top concerns for veterans are employment, financial, legal and health.
Veterans who act as volunteers in the program are trained in communication skills and available community resources so they can help other service members with challenges that might come up.
"When we identify those things, instead of saying, 'Oh, you should go sign up at the VA, or here's the 1-800 number,' we actually try to connect them to that service, so whether that's a person inside the VA that can help them enroll, sometimes that's meeting them at the doors of the VA and taking them through the whole eligibility process, sometimes that's telling them about benefits they might not even have known existed," Zarb said.
The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency aims to make Michigan the most veteran-friendly state. It began operation in March 2013 and serves as a central coordinating point for Michigan veterans.
The state agency never wants veterans or their families to be stuck waiting for a call or having to leave a voicemail.
It's 1-800-MICH-VETS phone number is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day and veterans always get a live person when they call.
"We begin by organizing what the state benefits and services are that we make available to our veterans and then we link that in with the federal and the local assets that are available to make sure that our veterans and their families are connected to the resources that they need," said Jeff Barnes, the director of Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency.
Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency focuses on helping veterans with education, employment, health care and quality of life. They assist with big problems and little ones, too.
"Sometimes we'll find veterans will come to us with a problem with a financial issue, we'll find that they're missing work and when you really start to ask you might find it's a child care issue or they need a care repair so they can get to work and that's where being able to help a veteran with a small issue like that keeps them employed and keeps them moving along the path they want for their quality of life," Barnes said.
Barnes said there are benefits that are under used by veterans including emergency funding and the Post 9/11 GI bill.
He also encourages every veteran to enroll in health care.
"The reason is because as time passes there will be possibilities their health will change, and the earlier we have them enrolled in the VA the easier it will be for them to access care when they need it," Barnes said.
Robert McDivitt, the director of the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, also encourages veterans to enroll.
"We had veterans who've have agent orange exposure purple hearts former POWs and for whatever reason they didn't think they were eligible for VA care. We would like every veteran to go through the eligibility process," McDivitt said.
Returning combat veterans get free health care for the first five years they're home.
If veterans or their families have questions or concerns, both agencies encourage them to reach out.
"If we need an answer, we know where to go to get an answer as opposed to getting a busy signal or a recording," Springer said. "We think we can help them through the process if they're having troubles just because of the background and the contacts that we have."
"A veteran that was honorable discharged, they're eligible for something. If they were honorably discharged they can at lease sign up for the veterans designation on their drivers license and we have a lot of restaurants and retailers that will offer a discount on Veterans Day or over the 4th of July or Memorial Day just to say thank you for their service," Barnes said. "On the other end of the spectrum, those who have been wounded in action or been a POW there are a lot of things that are available to them so we really encourage to take advantage of it, talk to a resource specialist and see what might be appropriate for you."