Veterans leaders gather in Trinidad to boost local services
Local, state and federal leaders met veterans in Trinidad Tuesday as the third annual round table tackled access gaps between Colorado and New Mexico services.
Decision-makers from local, state and federal levels sat down with veterans, spouses, local service groups and advocacy organizations Tuesday in Trinidad for the third annual Las Animas County Veterans Round Table. Hosted by Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center with Las Animas County, the gathering brought the people who shape veteran services into one room at 911 Robinson Avenue.
The focus was practical: raise awareness of available services, strengthen community connections and address the specific problems veterans face in Trinidad and across Las Animas County. That local challenge is unusually complicated because some services run through Colorado systems and others through New Mexico systems, leaving veterans and service officers to sort out where claims, care and support should go.
Mt. Carmel’s role in the event reflects how the campus has evolved since 2008 into a broader community hub. The nonprofit says it began initial medical and behavioral health services in 2011, then partnered with Salud Family Health Centers in 2017 so the campus could concentrate on wellness, civic and cultural programs. Mt. Carmel describes itself as a 501(c)(3) resource dedicated to building “a happier, healthier, and thriving community since 2008.”
Las Animas County Veterans Services remains the local liaison between veterans and the federal VA, helping cut through red tape. Colorado’s Division of Veterans Affairs says every county in the state has a free Veterans Service Office that helps veterans and family members with claims, applications and appeals, a structure that makes local coordination especially important in a rural county where travel and paperwork can slow access to care.
The round table also fit into a pattern already taking shape in Trinidad. Previous veteran forums brought together Matt Dominguez of the county veterans service office, Ray Odum of the Colorado Department of Veterans Affairs and members of American Legion Post 11 and the Trinidad and Las Animas County veterans group. Another local effort tied to Mt. Carmel named Matthew Dominguez, Jerry Renner and Ray Odem as partners in building a local network for veteran services.
That kind of sustained organizing has become part of the county’s veterans culture, alongside annual observances such as the Trinidad and Las Animas County Veterans Day ceremony and luncheon, which has featured the Fallen Comrade Table tradition since 1993. In Trinidad, the round table showed that the work now extends beyond remembrance and into the daily business of getting veterans the help they need.
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