The concept of “wraparound services” is a loose term to refer to making sure that we provide services not only for food security but also prenatal services for new mothers, sometimes addictions services for youth, sometimes diversion services for youth who are in trouble—essentially, something for every age group. You have youth programs, which are a huge priority because there are a lot of young people who need to be engaged at an earlier age. To support young parents, there's the prenatal programs, and especially also elders' programs. This is maybe where the gap is. We have a lot of elders' programs in the friendship centre movement, but they haven't necessarily focused on military service. I know that just in driving here, we saw a guy on Bank Street having a hard time, and we said, “He could be a veteran. How would we know?”
I've seen people I've worked with on the reserves disappear. Where do they live? He had a hard time. He didn't get along with anybody, and he left. People fall off the radar. If they go overseas and have a bad tour, they come back and they leave because they're frustrated. If they have a problem with the administration, they leave.
As Wally was saying, we have to keep track of where people are and where they go. As soon as you leave the forces you're a veteran. We definitely need to track and show proper respect for those who have served, through wraparound services.