By Jerry Bernstein
Caption: Optimist #1 JPG – Optimist guest speaker Andrea Serafin with Program Chair Wayne Switzer and Optimist President Rick Renaker at club’s July 1 breakfast meeting. Serafin, who works with the Veterans Administration Long Beach Healthcare Network as an outreach specialists assigned to the Combat Veterans Court in Orange County.
Serafin explained the Combat Veteran Court was created to provide a strong and structured supportive system linked to treatment services and programs in addition to individual counseling to assist veterans in navigating barriers after discharge from combat service. “A key link in this program,” she explained, “centers on the volunteer Veteran Mentor, who has a separate and independent role from the court proves, and many are Vietnam combat veterans.
She said Mentors act as coaches, guides, role models, and advocates and provide special personal support to the Veteran Mentee as they progress through the program and the court system. “This support is given in a way that only another combat veteran can understand,” she stated.
The Cerritos Optimist Club meets the first, second and fourth Thursdays at 7 a.m. and the third Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Off Street Café across from Gahr High School on Artesia Boulevard.
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