How this Guide came to be

SkipThis story really begins with planes crashing into the twin towers, however, out of necessity, we will fast forward nine years.

Our tale starts at Riverside City College in early May 2010.  The HTCTU applications for a Veterans Resource Center Project were out and many colleges that had budding Veterans programs were applying.  The influx of returning service men and women had already started and colleges across the country were beginning to realize that preparations needed to be made and that we were already behind the curve.

The Riverside Veterans Conference was focused on the coordination of the DSPS Program and the Campus Veterans Services.  One outcome of this conference was that the Chancellor's Office commissioned this training guide, partly to memorialize the Campus VRC projects that would shortly be visible entities on campus, and to create a repository of "Best Practice" information.  Over the past year, we have been compiling information, this guide is the result.

I had the privilege of taking several road trips between October 2010 and May 2011 during which I was able to visit eight colleges and film their Veterans Resource Centers.  I had a great time, met many really wonderful people and heard may stories of how these VRC's came to be.

I have decided to tell the story of this tour in the first person and will start with the first college visited and end with the last. I wish to thank all those who were so kind to me in the travels and were willing to speak and be filmed for this project.

Skip Bingham                                                                                                                                                                            skip@galvin-group.com

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