BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — When communications specialist Cedric V. Smith left active duty in 1989 and the Army reserves in 1995, he found himself lost with few options in front of him.
At one point his situation was so dire he spent time homeless and unemployed, not sure how to adapt to civilian lifestyle.
"When you're on your way out of [the army], and you're anxious enough, the only calling you're really listening to is 'I'm finally going to be free,'" Smith said of his honorable discharge.
"But you're not really thinking of what you have to do when you get out there."
Thanks to help from local veterans programs, Smith was able to get back on his feet. But for thousands of others, the transition seems almost impossible, he said.
Now Smith helps others like himself transition back into civilian life as the head of the Single Stop Veterans Initiative Program at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.
The program, sponsored by the Robin Hood Foundation, is one of just seven of its kind in the five boroughs, and one of just two in Brooklyn.
Smith and BSRC help veterans obtain benefits, request military records, enroll in a veterans affairs hospital and find jobs, among other things.
On Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., BSRC will hold a career and resource expo in Bed-Stuy to help spread the word on their services, a fairly new offering that BSRC Executive Vice President Tracey Capers said has unfortunately been underutilized in its first year-and-a-half.
"Of the many programs we have, people don't know we have a program that services veterans," Capers said. "We wanted to have this very specific event for veterans and their families to give them access to benefits and services at our site."
Local businesses like Home Depot and Dollartree will be on hand at Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton St., to participate in mock interviews and even take resumes, while BSRC will help with benefit screenings, applications and financial counseling.
Smith said he hoped the outreach and the program would help veterans and their families go back to the lives they had before military service.
"When veterans went off to war, there was no package to provide them with information that would help them reintegrate back into civilian lifestyle," Smith said.
"We had a lifestyle before we went into the military. How do we get that lifestyle back?"
