Kootenai veterans gather in Coeur d'Alene to connect with support services

Roughly 200 veterans came to the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday looking for something more immediate than a conference program: help with benefits, housing, mental health support and a place to be heard. The need was plain in a county where the Census Bureau estimates 13,662 veterans live in Kootenai County, part of a population that grew from 188,323 on July 1, 2024, to 191,864 on July 1, 2025.

For Maurica Nelsen, founder of the North Idaho Women Veterans Group, that visibility matters as much as any form or appointment. Her group is nearly 40 members strong, and Nelsen has said its work is not only about serving the broader community but also about helping veterans feel seen. That message resonated at the Joining Forces Idaho Conference, where sessions focused on veteran benefits and eligibility, homelessness and housing, mental health issues, suicide prevention and community connectedness.

The conference also brought together the kinds of people veterans often need most after the event ends: outreach workers, advocates and peers who know where to send someone for help. Idaho Division of Veterans Services says its mission includes advocacy, benefits assistance, education support, long-term care, cemeteries and outreach to veterans and families. The agency also runs a Joining Forces Idaho Grant Application for emergency assistance and financial relief, along with the Idaho Veterans Guide and a suicide-prevention effort tied to the Governor’s Challenge, including connectedness work and the “Ask the Question” campaign.

Gov. Brad Little attended the conference and said Idaho is proud of its veterans. But the more practical takeaway for Kootenai County was local access, not state-level rhetoric. Veterans in North Idaho can turn to the Kootenai County Veterans Services Office, the Boise VA Medical Center, the Idaho Division of Veterans Services and groups such as Newby-ginnings of North Idaho, which was created in October 2013 in honor of SPC Nicholas Newby, killed in action in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 7, 2011. Newby-ginnings provides free resources and household items to veterans, active military and Gold Star families.

The conference fit a broader pattern of demand in the region. More than 60 people attended a Kootenai County veterans town hall in May 2024 to learn about local services, and the North Idaho Veterans Stand Down was described that year as helping about 350 people in 2023, with 500 to 700 expected in 2024. In North Idaho, the need has stayed steady: housing help, mental health care, benefits guidance and simple peer support remain the services veterans keep asking for, long after the event tables are cleared.