Pell City — Finding innovative ways to provide support and services to veterans of St. Clair County, community leaders gathered together at Lakeside Hospice last Wednesday to listen to a presentation about online services known as the Veterans Network of Care.

The Network of Care is a resource designed for veterans and their families to seek assistance using the Internet.  Network of Care is a county-based web portal that acts as an information hub for government entities, healthcare providers, nonprofit organizations case managers and other behavioral healthcare professionals.  The portal allows individual entities to post information about their organization and/or services they offer to veterans and their families.

Bruce Bronzan, president of Trilogy Integrated Resources, who presented the Network of Care concept to the community, explained the benefits of setting up a Network of Care web portal for St. Clair County.  “The theory behind the Network of Care stems from the fact that people return from the military and nobody tells them anything,” Bronzan said.  “There’s a black hole because information about the services available is nonexistent.”

Citizens who served in the military to are entitled to local services they may not be aware of.

Bronzan says the Network of Care takes the task of creating a virtual environment for gathering information and keeping a continuous flow of updated information available for veterans and their families.

“Everyone has some services to offer, but no one has it all,” Bronzan said.  “This creates easy access to search for multiple services.”

The web portal provides users with tools to search for jobs and volunteer opportunities, seek information about medical services and engage in social networking.  The site’s social networking platform provides people with the ability to chat live 24-7 and post information for free.  Developers continually work to make the site as user-friendly as possible by translating the site’s information into 50 different languages.  Veterans also have access to a library full of researched information about numerous topics.  

“We are aware of so much more now that we weren’t aware of a few years ago,” County Comission Chairman Stan Batemon said.  “We have people hurting in this county, brothers and sisters who are hurting.  This gives another opportunity to openly discuss ways to help veterans.”