The Valor Clinic Foundation is offering Veterans Unstoppable, a life skills development program designed to foster a healthy war-to-peace readjustment for all veterans.

Michael Meining, outreach coordinator for Paul's House, the local Valor clinic, said it was named for a friend, Maj. Paul Syverson, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.The clinic took over the Hotel Jonas as a site to help veterans readjust to civilian life. The veterans, aged 20 to 70, often need help with physical activities.Meining spoke at the Kibler School for one of its Thursdays-in-July programs.Kay Gilbert, of the Friends of Kibler School, said she went to school with Meining when the one-room Kibler School was at its original site. He volunteered to go to Vietnam but wound up in Cambodia.A man came back from the war and worked in a soup kitchen. That was the start of Valor - Veterans Assisted Living Out Reach coordination organization. One paid director in Jonas is helped by 40 to 50 volunteers who donate 5,000 hours per month.In June 2014 the group received a grant to buy the hotel. It took five months to get it cleaned and usable, and opened on Nov. 1. There are rooms for 13 veterans per day who go through a 120-day program during which they learn life skills, job assistance and veterans compensation availability.Three strikes and you're out. Five of the 65 people who went through the program failed.On the fourth Saturday of a month, they deliver food bags and clothing to homeless people, Meining said.Small items are stored in a shed with shelves. Every piece they get has to be logged. They go through a warehouse of furniture and clothing to find what people need. Their outreach takes them as far as the Lehigh Valley north to the New York border.Unusable are large pieces of furniture such as king-size beds because though the Veterans Affairs will help a veteran find a home or apartment, it is often unfurnished and old houses have narrow doorways and stairs.Small electrical appliances such as microwaves, televisions and coffee makers are appreciated.Meining said they get a list of what is needed and then deliver it.Another program is for Veterans Advocacy and VA compensation through Medicare and Medicaid.The food for holiday meals is provided for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas - enough for three meals for a family. Local stores donate a lot of food items.Perhaps the most important and hardest to talk about is suicide, Meining said.People don't talk about it, but it festers. Meining lost buddies in Iraq.With the all-volunteer military, people may serve two, three, four or even five tours of duty. They forget how to assimilate into civilian life, Meining said.When you are separated from the military you're on your own.Meining said he did not know anything about assimilation until he was 65, but people need to know as soon as they come home.A small part in a large problemValor plays a small part because it is a smaller organization, but it is helping the numbers go down slightly.The American Legion holds retreats for people who are most affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. Fly-fishing has proved very helpful as a stress reliever. If you don't think anyone cares it is stressful.They give out thousands of blue jeans in a year. One church provides large containers filled with underwear and socks.When they made one delivery, which may take three to five pickups for one delivery, the man was in tears because he was so afraid they were not coming. He said, "But you're here."A kennel for five service dogs has been built.There have been some women because they undergo the same stress as the men.The goal is to have two Valor centers in each state. At present the one in Jonas is the only one in Pennsylvania.Gilbert said, "It's a wonderful thing you guys are doing."Wine was being sold at $8 per bottle with all the money going to Valor. .For information go to

www.valorclinic.org or Facebook.com/valorclinic.