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Dave Robertson walked into the VETS Peer to Peer Outreach Center on a whim. There he met Tim Crytser and he decided to come back everyday. "Tim saved me," he says of Crytser. Now Robertson is a peer mentor himself.
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"No job is too big for us here," Robertson says. They won't let go when a veteran comes in with a problem. They will use all their resources to make sure that person gets the help they need.
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Peer mentors call all the veterans who come through the door. If they haven't heard from someone in awhile they check up. "Dog tags" allow them to keep track.
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"I guarantee you everyone who's been in here has napped on these couches," Robertson says. That's the point of the "fox hole." To relax, watch TV, nap, talk. The fox hole is the place that they did these things when they were in active service.
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The veterans who frequent the center have put all their favorite military equipment in the front window as a way to draw attention to the center and get people to come inside.
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Just outside the center a lot of the men take smoke breaks. "We know it's not good for us," says Robertson, "but sometimes things get solved out there."
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Tim Cryster is the center's outreach director. Each moment he's doing something different whether it's calling about funding, a float trip, or a new house for a veteran.
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The center has an easy flow of home and office, but they are insistent that it's not an office. The couches and dinner table predominate.