Qualified Listeners hears what veterans are saying

Veterans in Niwot and elsewhere need a lot of support, including listening, advocacy and concrete resources for healing. A local nonprofit, Qualified Listeners, has been providing these services for the past five years. Now, thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation Boulder County, the organization has more than $3,141 in additional resources to expand their services.

"We're delighted to get that grant," said Greg Goettsch, Qualified Listeners founder and executive director. "Its main purpose is to start building a system in Boulder County where we can identify and connect with veterans, so we can offer them transportation. The highest priority is to get them to medical appointments, but our services won't be restricted to that."

The grant was part of a collective $9,423 in funding awarded to groups that support veterans, including Qualified Listeners, Cultivate, and Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement (HOPE).

"We are proud to recognize the service of the nearly 14,000 Boulder County veterans," Tatiana Hernandez, CEO of the Community Foundation, said in a press release. "Their unique experiences, perspectives, and leadership are vital to the community in all aspects of community life."

Goettsch founded Qualified Listeners after several years of listening to veterans who needed to unburden themselves, and realizing that one of their basic needs wasn't being met in a formalized, meaningful way.

"I compare myself to Pavlov's dog, after enough repetition I can learn something," he said. "I realized we're missing the boat. We're losing too many veterans to suicide. We're not listening to them."

Goettsch said,"If you want to go to the VA, for those who qualify, they want to fix you. But what about people who just need to talk? So in 2016, I looked for an organization who did face-to-face listening programs for combat veterans. I couldn't find anyone who could do that, so in January 2017, I started Qualified Listeners with a mission of reducing incidences of veterans suicides through face to face, safe listening care provided by other trained combat veterans who wouldn't judge them."

Once staff and volunteers listened enough to understand veterans' other needs, they became passionate about trying to meet those needs as well. One of the first additional activities the nonprofit staff did was to create a vetted and carefully curated resource directory so veterans could more easily connect with other organizations that could help.

They currently publish more than 10,000 copies of the directory and have other resource listings available on their website.

Qualified Listeners has grown and is now staffed by Goettsch and his wife Barb along with 36 volunteers. It has expanded geographically to serve all of Colorado and Wyoming and to meet needs of both veterans and families. The organization provides communication, advocacy, and outreach efforts to help inform the public both about the needs of veterans and about how Qualified Listeners can help.

Goettsch is seeing strong transportation needs for veterans. "We currently transport 40 to 50 veterans a month. We primarily take them to medical appointments, but if they need groceries, we do that. If they need to get shoes, we'll take care of that. We help them. That's our job."

Understanding what's needed will help them provide it better. That's where the grant funding will help. "I estimate that we're 8% to 10% of the population, but 60% of veterans aren't in the VA system and 40% don't qualify to be in the VA. When we have veterans who can't get to and from work, or can't get to and from appointments because they have no transportation and nobody seems to care,... it drives me up a tree."

Goettsch, his wife, and the Qualified Listeners extended team certainly care and are poised to help. And with this grant, the process of understanding the need in Boulder County can more formally commence.

To view what this organization does, or to refer a veteran for services, visit them online at https://qualifiedlisteners.org.