Beginning Tuesday, veterans and their family will be able to meet with a veterans resource specialist on the Together Center campus.
Kristina Setchfield, VSO, will assist veterans and their family members by appointment or drop-in on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Together Center’s Advocate Office, 16225 N.E. 87th.
Setchfield can assist with disability claims, resources, peer supportive services, GI Bill questions, homeless services and more. She can also help veterans and their families get oriented regarding services and benefits and how to take the next step.
“I am a U.S. Marine Corps veteran,” Setchfield said. “I helped organize the Seattle Stand Down and the South King County Stand Down to serve multi-era veterans with resources for those that are homeless, women, transitioning veterans and their families and to provide much needed resources to connect them with the services and resources they and their families need. I am firmly rooted in advocacy for veterans that are survivors of military sexual trauma and all veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”
The Together Center has worked with several partners over the last year to bring services for veterans the campus. Veterans advocate Curtis Thompson has assisted. He notes that 70 percent of benefits for the state’s veterans are left untapped.
Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by King County Veterans Services and Together Center to allow use of the center’s Advocate Office to help veterans. Setchfield is on staff with Therapeutic Health Services, which partners with King County Veterans Services.
“We have learned that the variety of federal, state and county benefits for veterans and their family members is extensive, but the systems, criteria and entry points are very complex,” noted Pam Mauk, Together Center executive director. “We are happy to have an expert on campus who can either address someone’s needs or get them to the right person.”
The Advocate Office is part of Together Center’s Front Door Services Program to ease access to finding help. The Advocate Office is also currently used by Public Health Seattle and King County and Young Housing Connection, while the Cultural Navigator Program, also part of the center’s Front Door Services Program, is next door.
One of the first nonprofit multi-tenant centers in the nation, Together Center was designed first and foremost to lower barriers to finding help. Where East King County residents once needed to travel from Bothell to Renton or beyond to find help at individual locations, people from throughout the Eastside now find comprehensive assistance at one location in downtown Redmond.
To contact Setchfield, call or text (206) 484-1016 or email her at Kristinas@ths-wa.org.
For more information on Together Center, contact Mauk at (425) 869-6699 or visit www.togethercenter.org or the center;s social media on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
