City of Fort Worth adds new veterans affairs position

FORT WORTH, Texas - The American GI Forum is an organization that offers specialized help to veterans.

The newly opened location in Fort Worth’s Rosemont community allows its staff to better connect with service men and women and the challenges they face.

Now, the city of Fort Worth has taken a big step to support those services for the more than 42,000 veterans who live there. 

"I think it often surprises our population that I’m the first female veteran to serve on for Fort Worth City Council," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck.

Beck is a former U.S. Army Reserves sergeant and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Her passion to assist the veteran community has led to the creation of a new veterans affairs position.

Councilwoman Beck explains how much more efficient the city’s current assistance programs will operate in conjunction with programs like the American GI Forum, which helps veterans with jobs, housing and more.

"Fort Worth is incredibly lucky that. We have a lot of community partners in the veteran space, and some of them we don’t know about because we don’t have a position that keeps its finger on the pulse of what is available to our veterans," Becks said.

"It’s very challenging because they bring a great deal of barriers to the situation, and our goal is to help bring those barriers down," said Jerry Robinson with the American GI Forum.

The position is open to candidates who wish to apply.  It closes in four weeks.  It appears the goal is to hire someone to coincide with the start the new year.