A recent $250,000 grant from the state will help veterans in San Bernardino county returning from active duty readjust to civilian life by plugging them into job training programs.

The grant, approved Tuesday by the San Bernardino County board of supervisors, focuses on recent veterans and helping them get vocational training at specific eligible training location programs, like the heavy mobile equipment mechanic training at Barstow Community College.

According to Sandra Harmsen, director of San Bernardino’s Department of Workforce Development, the county anticipates that 150 to 180 soldiers will return by the fall of 2009.

Cheryl Shelby, one of three counselors who works specifically with veterans at the Department of Workforce Development’s Hesperia office said that veterans face many of the same challenges civilians face when job hunting.

Otherwise, they want to know which of their military skills are “transferable into civilian life,” said Shelby, who noted that some of her clients include Barstow veterans.

The grant funds will be administered through the Department of Workforce Development, which helps veterans who enroll with the department to get placed in training programs that the county will then fund.

The amount was intended to serve 150 veterans, according to David Zook, spokesman for First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt’s office.

BCC’s mechanic training program, which is a partnership between the San Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board, the Barstow Marine Corps Logistics Base and the college, is an eight-week training program where,  upon conclusion, the participants will be qualified for entry level jobs at places like MCLB.

The funds are aimed at veterans separated within the past four years, but any veterans are eligible to receive training funded by the grant, according to county officials.

According to Janica Nagel, workforce development supervisor at the county’s Department of Workforce Development office in Hesperia, veterans who want help getting placed in a job training program that the grant fund must enroll through the county’s workforce office.

Donna Hughes, a workforce development specialist, said she is available at Barstow Community College on Thursdays and every other Friday to help veteran and non-veteran job seekers alike get help with resumes, interviews, research jobs and get access to equipment like fax machines and computers.

Nagel said that veterans who were on active duty at least 180 days and wish to enroll must visit the county offices — the closest located in Hesperia — and bring their drivers license, social security information, military discharge papers and unemployment award letter, if currently receiving unemployment.

Approximately 123,736 veterans reside in San Bernardino County, according to a  2007 report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com