Rome chapter eliminates need to travel to Utica
The Utica Center for Development opened a Veterans Outreach Center in Rome. The new Veterans Outreach Center provides support services for veterans and their families, as well as homeless prevention, rapid rehousing programs, suicide prevention services and much more, including everyday services like a food pantry and free internet access.
Veterans in Rome and western Oneida County who need support services can now visit the new Rome branch of the Central New York Veteran’s Outreach Center instead of traveling to Utica.
The new office is located at the First Baptist Church of Rome at 301 W. Embargo St. “We want to make accessibility to our services as easy as possible for the veterans of Rome and western Oneida County. We understand transportation difficulties,” said Vincent Scalise, executive director of the Utica Center for Development, which runs the outreach centers.
“We have a high percentage of veterans on this side of the county.”
“We get a lot of foot traffic in Utica with individuals from Rome,” said Makenzie Citrin, the senior case manager who will be running the new Rome office. “We’re happy to have a presence in Rome. We’ve tried to push towards this portion of the county for a while, and we’re happy to have a place here. We’re excited to see what’s to come.”
The new office will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Citrin said they are still working to get a telephone number directly to the Rome office, and veterans in need can call the Utica office at 315-765-0975 and will be redirected to Rome. Or those in need can just stop by the new office. “They can just walk right in,” Citrin said.
Original article appears in The Sentinel.
