County recognizes veterans program
For three decades, the Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) has provided veterans with hope.

"This program has helped countless veterans through employment assistance and outreach," Ocean County Freeholder Director John P. Kelly said. "And even more importantly, the program has provided these men and women returning from war with opportunity."

Ocean County Freeholder Gerry P. Little, who serves as liaison to the Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau, joined with members from the state Department of Labor, the county's Workforce Investment Board and veterans organizations during a recent ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of the program.

"Ocean County is home to more than 68,000 veterans, many from World War II," Little said. "This outreach program helps all of our veterans. The Disabled Veteran Outreach Program specialists provide outreach and offer assistance to disabled and other veterans by promoting community and employer support for employment and training opportunities.

"Today, in 2007, with the next generation of veterans and disabled veterans, DVOP staff continue to make a difference in helping returning veterans back into the labor market, and assisting them to secure training, veterans benefits and quality careers," Little said.

Little said about 200 veterans access the program each month in Ocean County through the state Department of Labor's One Stop Center at 1027 Hooper Avenue, Toms River.

The DVOP specialist works in conjunction with the Ocean County Workforce Investment Board and the Department of Labor in providing the appropriate training and employment services.

According to a press release from Ocean County, the Disabled Veteran Outreach Program was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to help the thousands of veterans wounded and injured during the Vietnam War.

Over the years, the program has enhanced its level of professionalism through special training to deal with the evolving needs of servicemen and servicewomen returning from the first Gulf War in the 1990s and today from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Little noted that the program started as a temporary program with the employment of 2,000 disabled Vietnam era veterans across the country. DVOP specialists have assisted hundreds of thousands of disabled and other veterans to return to work and society, according to the press release.

At the ceremony Little helped to recognize some of the key people who have made the program a success in Ocean County including Jill Perez, director of the Ocean County Workforce Investment Board; Leroy Lloyd, manager, Ocean County One Stop Career Center; Alan Grohs, retired U.S. Department of Labor, director of Veterans Employment and Training; Ernest Parcespe, New Jersey Department of Labor former DVOP specialist; Donald Alexander, New Jersey Department of Labor DVOP specialist; Phillip Vitakis, New Jersey Department of Labor Local Veterans Employment Representative; Larry Kelly, commander District 12, Veterans of Foreign Wars; and Donald Marshall Jr., deputy manager, One Stop Career Center.

"Our veterans give up so much so we can enjoy the many freedoms we are granted," Little said. "Our veterans sacrifice each and every day. Providing them with the proper tools and with the compassion they need to reacclimate themselves to something that may sound so simple to us - day-to-day life - is the least we can do for each and every one of our hometown heroes."