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State and local lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for New York to release funding to veterans organizations for a peer support program. Every year, they press for the funding, and every year, the funding is released. This year’s plea comes with a request that the funding become a permanent part of the budget.
The Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Project began in Suffolk County as a pilot program in 2012, providing peer-to-peer support and counseling to veterans and their families. Democratic Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan is an Army veteran.
“We know before COVID we were already in the midst of an epidemic of veteran suicide, over 22 veterans a day taking their own lives. And for me and for so many here and on this line, that is deeply personal,” Ryan says. “For me, to come home from serving in combat, bringing all the troops under my command home safely, and then to lose one of them to suicide, to lose one of my closest friends to suicide, and so many of us have these stories.”