Skip to content
Veteran Village in Racine Wisconsin WI Veterans Chamber of Commerce

How This Groundbreaking Nonprofit is Empowering Wisconsin Veterans

The nonprofit ecosystem can be strange and unforgiving, and the veteran-serving nonprofit ecosystem is no exception.

We were proud to chat with Zach Zdroik, Executive Director of Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin about the current state of Wisconsin veteran-serving nonprofits, programs, and charitable organizations, and the incredible work VOW is doing today.

VOW is known for their groundbreaking work building and maintaining the Veteran Village in Racine.

From vowvillages.com:

The James A Peterson Veteran Village and SC Johnson Community Center are located at 1624 Yout Street, Racine, WI 53404. We house homeless veterans while supplying them with all the tools needed to break the cycle of homelessness and help them to once again become productive members of society.

Our program is much more than just a shelter for homeless veterans. We bring them into a welcoming, warm environment with all the amenities they need, including a full-sized kitchen, recreation area, showers, bathrooms, and a laundry room. In addition, they have their own unique tiny home which has a bed, small storage areas, a microwave, Keurig machine, refrigerator, and a television. A large part of the program is working closely with each resident to bring all the tools necessary for success and well-being. These tools include group therapy for PTSD and AODA, assistance with work search, Veterans benefit search, financial advice and guidance, and housing placement. We also offer alternative classes from cooking to yoga to art therapy. We want each Veteran to have a well-rounded experience so they may grow and adapt.

Listen to our conversation with Zach Zdroik via the Wisconsin Veterans Forward Podcast (in 2 parts), or watch the video, or read the full transcript below:

PART 1:

PART 2:

VIDEO:

Full Interview Transcript:

Ep 103-104, Jan. 2022:

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward, the nonprofit world is weird and unforgiving and it's just a different beast. You know, if you try to run a nonprofit, like a business entirely like a business, there's certain aspect that, you know, obviously have, have parallels, but if you try to run it entirely like a for-profit business usually get into a little bit of trouble and the other way around as well, there are just certain protocols and procedures and best practices and like base level low bar expectations, things that folks who have experience in the nonprofit world know about know to do and know how to do well, that people that don't, they just don't get. And you have to work in a nonprofit to really get it. You know, you can volunteer for a nonprofit, you could be a committee member, you could be a board member and you'll have more of a clue.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

But until you work for a nonprofit off it, you don't quite appreciate just the unique, persistent level of stress associated with, with, with working in a nonprofit ecosystem. That said it's an exceptionally satisfying it's a valuable thing. You know, a lot of people that, that work for non profits, they don't have, they don't trouble sleeping at night cause they know they're doing good things. You know, it's, it's a fulfilling and satisfying career. And being able to serve veterans in the nonprofit space is doubly fulfilling, especially for folks like myself who served and folks like our guests today, who also served and has spent the last, however many years of his career serving veterans either in a government or a nonprofit capacity, it's, it's super fulfilling. You know, the, the, the veterans, we just have a connection with our people and we wanna be able to, to support and, and still be their wing men, even when we're not in the service anymore.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

A lot of us. And I think that's really cool, that's it, there are a lot of challenges in this space, a lot of unique challenges. There are unique best practices in the nonprofit world, but there are unique challenges as well that you don't see in any other industry, the government, or in, especially for profit or corporate entities like that, nonprofits have unique struggles. And the veteran nonprofit ecosystem is no exception. In fact, the veteran nonprofit ecosystem has its own kind of niche, unique challenges that they have to deal with an Endurant overcome to be able to stay solvent and continue to make an impact. Some, some nonprofit organizations out there just struggle to stay solvent much less to have a, have a programmatic impact. It's, it's a tough cutthroat dog eat dog, nonprofit world out there. And, and so the question is how does a nonprofit succeed?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

How does a nonprofit kind of nudge their way to the front and be seen by donors and supporters and volunteers and board members? How do they overcome these certain, these challenge that are unique to them in the nonprofit or the veteran serving nonprofit ecosystem? And that's what we're talking about, cuz it's nonprofit and community month. That's what we're, that's what we're all about right now. We're talking about nonprofits in Wisconsin, community supporting endeavors and charities and programs in this state of Wisconsin. And we wouldn't have a better guy here to talk to us about that than Zach Z aro. He is with veterans outreach at Wisconsin. He's gonna tell you all about that. He's been a county veteran services officer, like this is a guy that knows his stuff at a very wide, like he knows from the government service angle county veteran service angle, but then also he's in the nonprofit world now and he's doing some groundbreaking stuff.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Veterans outreach in Wisconsin are the folks that are responsible for the veteran tiny homes village in Racine county. They're the ones behind that. And we've all heard about that, you know, but it's people like Zach that are, that are behind the scenes, making this magic happen and making a real impact. So we have Zach on the show today to talk about what are his unique challenges in his space? What is he seeing in the nonprofit world for those of you out there that, that work in the nonprofit world or aspire to one day have, or for a nonprofit, what do you need to be on the lookout for?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Or are you a volunteer? And, and the knowledge of this information would probably help you to better empathize with and, and support the paid members of the, or the paid staff of the nonprofit. So I think this touches a lot of people and think some of you will be surprised people that are on the kind of the periphery on the outside of the nonprofit ecosystem. I think I've used the word ecosystem 47 times. And I'm sorry, if you have another word for ecosystem, please put it in the chat and I will, I will alternate between whatever that word is and ecosystem, okay, whatever you have, like a third or a fourth word, I'll just, I'll just keep rotating them out. So apologies. But I think you'll find this valuable and very interesting. This is a very unique space and I'm looking forward to diving into it with our guest Zachs aro right after this lovely new bumper, you are listening to Wisconsin veterans for forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran friendly businesses. Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce@wiveteranschamber.org. I love the new bumper. I'm excited about it. Okay. Enough about that, Zach, my friend. How are you today, sir?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah, you bet. Hey, I gotta ask you was the bumper too loud?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

No, I think it was good.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Okay. I don't

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Want people was too long too, so I was good.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Their headphones just cuz it's like, yeah. So what's happening over there in Racine county man. Talk, talk to us.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah. So I mean here at Val, obviously we focus on two main things. Right now we have veterans housing with the tiny homes. So we focus on veterans housing and then food insecurities with our veterans marketplace. We are going to be incorporating new program here within the next month and that's gonna be our mental health program, our mental health. Program's gonna offer group therapy groups for the outside veteran community, not only our residents, but also the obviously we bring the residents there daily to go through, take care of their mental health problems and our veterans marketplace. Obviously we have 450 veterans and surviving spouse go through there once a month, right? Oh. So that tells me there's a big need there. And those numbers have been going up as the cost of food goes up across the board. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> so one other thing we're gonna be adding to is a veteran's mobile marketplace.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So concept behind that is pretty simple. We take our mobile, our marketplace and mega mobile. We're gonna gut a bus. We're gonna get a car hauler and we're gonna use that to go to veterans housing groups in state of Wisconsin mm-hmm <affirmative>. And ultimately we'd like to go to separate counties, work with different veteran programs, work at the CV OS keep those data and a analytics from those specific cities or counties. Then that way we pass that to that veteran community in hopes that maybe they want a veteran marketplace there one day, but we got a lot, lot of good things continue to be innovative. I think that's the most important thing though. So, so

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You're definitely not collecting dust is the bottom line. You're you're not growing Moss that's for sure. You guys are keeping busy and you're, you're having a real impact, but let's, let's start from the first one there. Cause I have so many questions about the tiny homes project. Yeah. and, and some of it, some of it comes from like the beginning, you know, there there's so many people that they hear about the tiny homes project. They're like, man, that's a really great idea. I personally wouldn't even know where to begin from the ideation phase to actually getting the things built and approved through all the different entities and getting the funding and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How insane and how big of a lift was that to go from ideation to breaking ground?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah. So our founder who create founder the whole vow, we, it started very simple, basic human needs, right? Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And that started with our veterans marketplace. So we're providing food to the community, you know, cold weather gear, stuff like that, whatever they may need for the, and from that we found out like, wow, there's a lot of housing needed around here as well. We don't have enough here in Southeast Wisconsin for these vets because we still have homeless veterans. And we saw something that was online, but the tiny home project, it was like, Hmm. I wonder if that's something we can do here. And we had some land available, like let's contact these guys and contacted them. And they were part of the tiny home project. And we said, Hey, we wanna do this here in Racine. We worked with the city very closely that we had their support immediately. The county was on board and before, you know, it, November, 2017, we were cutting a rip and vets were moving in to the homes. And it was just amazing from, from just a thought to making it happen. It was like bam, blink of an eye. And all of a sudden before you know it, we're housing vets and we're moving forward and seeing what else Anitas how

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Many, so how many houses are in this particular? What do you call it? A village or a yes. Yeah. Okay.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah. We have 15, 15 currently

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

15 houses. And, and my understanding was that you pretty much had 15 houses filled with 15 veterans almost immediately.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yes. Right away. So sometimes depending on the time of year, sometimes during summer, you know, we'll have a couple openings, but like during a winter, like right now numbers, are we full as we'll every veteran's housing program in Southeast Wisconsin. But I think a lot of that has to go into you know, people are getting evicted now right. With so I mean, them getting evicted only causes more of a need, like right now in not slam on this, but in Southeast Wisconsin, it's hard to find an opening for somebody that needs housing for veterans.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, so is it mostly transient housing or are people staying long term? What's the average duration?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So it is a two year program. Not all vets stay two years, some say two years, some stay two and a half years. It depends. So what we do is we individualize a program, right? Cause we have some of the vets have been living in their car for years. Some have been living in a woods for years. Other vets been, just got divorced, need a little extra help. So depending on what their plan is, maybe they wanna have an apartment or buy a house one day, we'll set 'em up for success from there. So our program director works with 'em one on one, we have finance planners come in, we have, you know, employment opportu come in and move forward with, with whatever they need.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's amazing. So it's not just, you know, not just a roof over their heads, which is very important. Yes. But you're giving them that, that kind of holistic support to get them back, back on their feet. And is it, is it one per house then?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yes. One veteran per house.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And how many how many veterans let's say in a given year, come in and out of, of the village.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So that number, I can give you the number total.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So I mean, you, you can guesstimate. I'm not, I'm not trying to grill you

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Here 20, 20, 25 probably once a year. So since November, 2017, we've had about 67 veterans complete the program, so right,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right on. And those are folks that complete it with a housing solution and employment and enduring resources.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Exactly. Cause some vets I'll be honest. I mean this program isn't for everyone, let's be honest here it's a community program. So you're working with, you know, the program director as well as you're working with the other residents back there on certain things. And some, some people just don't want anything to do with it and that's okay. We still set 'em up for success as best we can. But we look at the numbers for what was completed and that's about 67 up to the state.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

What are some of the unique challenges that you face with the ongoing maintenance of the, not just the facilities, but you know, maintaining, there's probably a code of ethics and behavioral standards. And I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure you run into some very unique challenges. Can you tell and without going into too many details, obviously, cause we have people's personal experiences to take into account here, but, but how, how challenging is it to maintain this property

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So very to put it, but it depends. So when we do when somebody applies to live here, we sit down with, 'em like, okay, what do you want to do in life? What's your go? Like, where do you wanna get to? We explain what the program is. We take them through vow and let them see exactly everything we have going on. And if they say I'd like to live here about, okay, five years, where do you see yourself two years? Like, do you just want housing? Do you wanna work? Do you want schooling? Whatever it is. And are you okay with the community program? Cuz we put emphasis on that D program because that's what they're gonna be living in. If you're not a people person, this might be a difficult program, but sometimes, you know, individuals that aren't people, people they'll come in and be like, you know what? They grow to love this place. And they, they have self growth. So, you know, we allow, obviously there's a little risks among residents here and there as anywhere and any workplace for that might mm-hmm <affirmative> and you know, we take it as it comes. Honestly, we've been very lucky there hasn't been like really extreme cases of something happening. But you know, we work with those people one on one and kind of move forward with

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Them right on. So is what are, what are your plans for the future? I mean, you said that there's a constant, constant need. Are, are, are you hoping to expand and have more of these in Racine county? Mark Flowers says keep up with the good work, Zach. Thank you, Adam. Appreciate you mark. Mark's a good dude. We like mark. Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. Yeah. So sorry about that, Zach. What, what is, what are your place for the future there in Racine county? Are you hoping to, to build more <affirmative>

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So we'll see, honestly, I don't wanna say yes. I don't wanna say no. I mean the biggest thing that we do here is we focus on the need, right? And this winter we're kind of realizing, yeah, there is a need for veterans housing. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> time union Grove they're booked, you know, the, the housing or the VA they're booked with CVI. I mean, mean right. And there's other CVI apartments around here and their fault. So I mean, it tells me that there's a need there. We also focus on the mental health side of things. Like that's what we're focused on right now, because ever since a pullout in Afghanistan, obviously that hit the veteran community very hard. And when I was the service officer, I heard those needs and I saw those needs firsthand. So I knew that we needed to do something here at Val to have something that, you know, the vets can come to at any time to escape that, you know, place in their mind that might be getting dark for 'em.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So with the housing note or kind of focus on that, it's something that we're thinking about talking about, but we're kind of monitoring the numbers and seeing how this winter plays out with other veteran programs. Cuz the reason we didn't is cuz we had 15 homes and it was like, it was a good number. It was a good number because we had a program director run it pretty well. It wasn't getting too wild. It was pretty smooth. But also we had all this other veterans housing in, in the area and they always had one or two openings. So it was nice. But like I said, this is one of the first years it's like everything's booked. So it's like, okay, maybe we need to look at other pro focuses out there. But when you look at so

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And where does the funding for something like that come from, I can't even imagine how much it would cost. I mean, is it a county funding, state funding? Is it largely private donors, individual donors or a combination all the

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Above, honestly. So whenever I bring anyone through Val, I explain first thing, like all this here is from the community. It all is mm-hmm <affirmative> whether it's for businesses, you know, sponsoring a home sponsoring community center, families donating, you know, some food for our marketplace. It's honestly incredible to see the support and people come together whenever we need anything, but without them, we would be here without the community. This place would never exist. So it's a little bit of everything. We obviously being a five one [inaudible] we apply for the grants annually and yeah, just the community as a whole has been the reason we're

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Here. That's amazing. You know, and, and in the national news, given things that have been going on in the last few years, you see Racine and Kenos counties and in the news for certain things that have happened. And it's easy for people on the outside looking in to think that Racine isn't a great community, but the truth is when you're boots on the ground, Racine is a great community with great people who support, you know, who support each other and support their veterans. And, and, and the fact that this thing is fun and running and making an impact is proof of that. You know, I think it's amazing. And I, I just wanted to draw attention to something that we talked about before we went live is, you said you faced like no bureaucratic resistance from Racine city county. Like they were onboard from the GetGo. Is that correct? Yeah,

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah, the city and the county were extremely supportive when we got this going back in November, 2017. I mean, obviously there's politics. I go into it, but for the most part, they were very supportive. We had a lot of strong supporters within the city and the county that made this happen. No

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Problem for us. That's amazing. And that is not like I cannot stress enough for people that don't, that haven't tried to work with the state or the county or intergovernmental or between nonprofits and state or municipal entities. Like that is not the, the norm. And I think it's amazing that that Racine just like threw their shoulder into helping out. And clearly you guys are making a big impact with that. So that's, that's amazing. Did, did COVID throw a wrench in any of your plans or your programs or operations in the village or was it just kind of like, all right, mask up, make sure people are healthy and just keep doing our stuff? Well,

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah, it kind of threw everything off for everyone obviously, but we obviously had to put back a lot of events, you know, because we really, we lean on those and fundraisers and get the community involved. Cuz again, we'd like to thank the community by doing these events and we weren't able to, so now we're at the point and say, okay coach, it's here. All we have to do is kind of put up, put on events safely. Right? We have to be innovative. I keep saying that because that is extremely important for us. We be innovative on how we do these events, how we thank the community and kind of do things differently now because we're, we're living in a new world and we have to go with it.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, and did you have to shift your approach? I mean, you mentioned that a lot of your funding and you know, any nonprofit, like if you don't engage with your stakeholders, if you don't steward your stakeholders, your potential donors, your existing donors people in the community you cannot survive. So all nonprofits everywhere who like us gained a lot of revenue and not just revenue, but also, you know, membership and kind of ongoing steward from our live events. We had to pivot a ton. This office hours that we're on right now is came, was born from a need that we saw and needed to continue to address in the face of COVID, you know, and a lot of our stuff. So the, the, did you have to shift to adapt to that, to make sure your funding didn't dry up and, and what of those, those new programs are you gonna keep once things kind of chill out again and we can see each other again, safely, you know?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Well, at, in the very, very beginning, we kind of were hoping like, I think everyone else were like hoping it was gonna go away so we can get that normal. But now, since this is our new normal, we have new plans. We have new plans obviously than where we're gonna focus on. Now, like I said earlier with our mobile marketplace, you know, we wanna do things safely for people get, get that out to them rather than have, you know, people are at risk taking more of a risk. And we're also talking about doing a delivery service for the marketplace for specific areas, because we understand that a lot of people don't wanna get out there and take any risks. And I respect that completely. So this way we, we can continue to focus on their need by getting, getting the, you know, groceries out to them rather than them having to leave the home and you know, feeling bad about it. So, but ultimately I go on with it.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I did have one question that I forgot earlier about your general day to day. So I wanna backtrack before I move on to talk about your, your new upcoming mental health programs in, in a given day, let's say I'm a resident at the village. Am I just kind of like free to build my own day? Or is it structured? Like, you know, you are required to work and then, you know, we do a, an inspection to make sure things are clean. Like when you are in the military once a week, or like how how structured is it for the residents?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

So, like I said earlier, it is the program itself is individual. We have some people work all day. Some people work at night, so it's gonna differ for everyone. Sure. now some people aren't employed and that's okay. We, and everyone does have to volunteer though. So if you're employed five hours of volunteer service a month, mm-hmm <affirmative>, if you're not working 20 hours of volunteer service, because we don't want anyone just sitting there not doing anything, but the program director's very hands with the vets. So that way he keeps them motivated, keeps them moving forward. Cause otherwise you're right. They'll just sit there, not do anything. Some people just complacent, we gotta keep them motivated and let them know that we're in their corner as a support system.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's a great idea too. You know, a lot of people, if they are, if they're not really sure what direction to head in, or if they're feeling lost or, or whatever the, the adage is, you know, if you, if you don't know, if you're lost serve, you know, give back and making them volunteer can sometimes give people who may feel lost or you know, ship without a rudder sort of thing. May give them some direction and some purpose again. So it's brilliant. I mean, clearly you guys have thought this thing, this thing out and it's, it's, it's awesome. Let's, let's talk about the mental health aspect. You, you told me about the program before we went live. That sounds really exciting. Cause it doesn't sound like it's just kind of the same old, same old. It sounds very unique. Can you talk about about the program?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah. So when I came in here as ed, I was one of the main focuses that I knew we needed to do. Cause as a CVS O I realized there's a lot of mental health problems in the veteran community. I had too many veterans sitting in front of me saying, I'm I wanna kill myself right. Too many. And that's obviously a big problem that we have in a veteran community. So that tells me, okay, what can we do differently? Right. And that's going back to being innovative and thinking outside the box, what's out there right now. Okay. Is it working for some people, obviously? Not for all. So what we're gonna be incorporating here is having a well mental health office. So not every veteran qualifies for VA services, we all know that, right? So with this mental health office, every Monday, Tuesday went say there's a Friday throughout the week.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

We're gonna have a different mental health program in there, whether it's like the vet center, the state, the county, or the VA. So that way there's something for everybody. They'll be open to the residents all day long and the outside community can, you know, make appointments throughout the week as well. And outside of that, we're outside that office. We have an area that we're gonna be doing a therapy for art therapy, for music therapy, phototherapy, and have these programs come in and highlight what they're doing as well as the residents have something else to, you know, look at and the outside community can sign up for those as well. So I'm very excited about that. That's another way, again, we're being innovative, kind of serving the veteran community and ultimately we're focusing on the need. That's out there.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

The arts are a great way for veterans to heal, to express themselves not too long ago. Earlier in December we had we had mark from feast of Crispian on here, who's their new executive director and, and talked about you know, it just, it blew my mind. I, I had known about feast of Crispian for quite some time. And, you know, I have an arts background music, but even I was like flabbergasted at, at the real, tangible benefits of, and in their case, dramatic arts therapy and Shakespeare therapy, like giving, giving vets an outlet, a comfortable and safe outlet to express themselves is, is, is something that has value that cannot be overstated. I mean, it, it, it really is important. So I'm, I'm glad that you're doing that. We need more of that because like you said, you know, the, the VA's working for some people, but not for everybody and takes, takes different different strokes for different folks. What, what are your other what are your other programs right now that, that you are developing? Can you talk a little bit more about the the marketplace? What, what does that look like?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah. So the marketplace is like any grocery store, to be honest with you. So a vet can go through there, it's open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, mm-hmm, <affirmative> 12 to four. So if you're a single vet, you get 40 pounds of food once a week, everyone's assigned their own day. So that way it doesn't get too busy in the marketplace waiting area. Right. And if you have a family at three or more, you can get 60 pounds of food once a week. We have, wow. We get everything's donated. Honestly, we have Amazon, they're a big supporter of us target Walmart, lot of local bakeries and the community as a whole. So there's a bin outside of VI that people can come and donate food at any time. And, Hmm. And honestly, every morning I come here and I've been, is full and unbelievable. It's most amazing. That's amazing.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And again, just another Testament to how great that community is in, in, in south Wisconsin that <laugh>, that that's outstanding. You guys are doing pretty much everything. And so is, is it somebody that has to be, that is in the program or in one of your housing units that has access to that marketplace? Or is, is it any community veteran that is in need? What's the process for them to get in on that?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Yeah, so it's open to all veterans. Obviously our residents go there, but it's open all veterans and surviving spouses of veterans. Okay. So all they need is a DD, two 14 proof, your veteran identifier. We logged them into our system. Once you logged in, you don't have to do it again. You sign in on your days that you're going there and go from there. But any veterans able to go there, we have a lot of vets that come in from Milwaukee, all over Southeast Wisconsin. So we know the, and with the cost of food going up, we know it's the knee's only gonna get even greater from here. So

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

What does your vision look like? So five, five years from now, let's say let's say Zach and veterans outreach accomplish everything that they set out to accomplish. They check every box, they hit a grand slam home run five years from now. What is Southeastern was like,

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

I, you say Southeast Wisconsin, I think it's the state of Wisconsin. I think it's every, every veteran is aware of what the services that we provide. And obviously we're building a groundwork here in Weine, it's working and we're gonna continuing to grow across the whole state because the services we provides for everyone, right. We're focusing on the three main groups now, housing, food, insecurities, and mental health in, in next year, there might be something else we add. We're gonna keep going with the need, continue to be innovative. And that's the biggest thing, but everyone's gonna know vow for being innovative and focusing on the need and ultimately we're saving lives.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's amazing. I can picture you guys. So, so you're saying tiny homes, villages, and your group therapy and your marketplace support in every, not just metropolitan area, but every city that there's a need in the state of Wisconsin.

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Absolutely. If there's a need, that's what we wanna focus on and grow from there. Or it's, maybe it's helping other nonprofits get there. You know what I mean? If there's another nonprofit that wants to do marketplace, fantastic. We'll help you get there. I don't wanna compete with anyone. I feel like there's a lot of competing in the nonprofit field. Yeah. No need to do that. We, we all gotta collaborate and we're all doing the same thing. You we're all helping people. So

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

There's a, there's a lot, that's an, that's an understatement of the day. There's a lot of infighting in the nonprofit world. And, and there's a lot of infighting in the veteran nonprofit world, you know, we're, it's like we're brothers and sisters, but we're also very, you know, and it's exactly, it's good to know that you are. You're one of the good ones that sees the, you know, the important part is, is, you know, the end result and that is serving the need in helping the people. What, what challenges, what, what do you, what do you see getting what hurdles are in between you and that finish line? Your, your vision?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Ooh, I mean, that's tough. I mean, I feel like we're gonna make it happen, how maybe I'm overly confident, maybe it's improvement <laugh> but honestly, I, it is kind of what we just said, you know, I mean, I wanna continue to collaborate. I don't want people competing or programs competing cause I that's where we fail and I've seen it throughout the last seven years in this field programs, just button heads, and then bam, at the end of the day, it's like, what are we doing here? And I, I don't wanna get to like a state mate that we're just sitting there waiting for something, waiting for this because of other nonprofits that are like complaining about this or that, where at the end of the day, we're doing the same thing. So I think it's just to collaborate. I think we'll get there. I, but at the same time, I know it's not reality. I know we're gonna butt heads with some people, not that I want to, but I it's part of what we do. And I'm hoping that we'll focus on the need and people will understand that the needs there, all we're doing is helping people at the end of the day. So, and go from right

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

On. Well, good stuff, Zach that's man, he's not only saying all the right things, folks, he's also doing all of those things. And so is veterans outreach at Wisconsin. They're they put their money where their mouth is and they really have a huge impact throughout the state. And, and, and, and in Southeastern Wisconsin in particular can't can't can't thank you enough, Zach, for what you doing for, for joining us today?

Zachary Zdroik - VOW:

Oh no, thank you, Adam. It's great

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

To be here on I'll ask you to hang on the line for just a minute while I close things out. Folks that was educational. I have a, I have a lot of, like, I feel like I need to go to this, this, this village and take a look cuz I have, I have questions about, you know, like how, just how it works. It's so it's so interesting. It's so efficient and economical and you know, it's, it's like they pack a lot of punch, like the tiny, the tiny homes and the whole ecosystem. I said ecosystem again for Pete's sake, the whole ecosystem. <Laugh> the whole thing. I'll say thingy. The whole thingy just accomplishes so much in one tight package. Like it's amazing. Amazing. Indeed. I wonder how many times I actually did use the word ecosystem in this episode, in the episode before combined probably close to 50, I would say so. Apologies. I'll I'll do better. Do better. I'm gonna work on that in the meantime, friends will see you next week. Same time, same place. Have a great week. Thank you for listening to Wisconsin veterans forward brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us at wiveteranschamber.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.

WVF Audio Preview Square

Office Hours LIVE and the Wisconsin Veterans Forward podcast are brought to you by the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

 

Please follow us across all platforms to stay in the loop: