New CEO Of Veterans Village Of San Diego Has Special Connection To Vietnam-Era Vets

The annual standout event for homeless veterans is over for another year, but something else has just started at San Diego's veteran’s billings. This week Kim Mitchell begins her tenure as CEO and president of the organization taking over from longtime village leader Phil Landis. Mitchell is a former Navy officer dates the first non-Vietnam vet two runs veteran’s village in the first William days woman. -- And the first women. >> What stood out was the fact that so many resources were able to come together at one place and one time in everyone working together. If one organization could not provide an exact resource or service to one of the participants that needed something, they were very easily able to recommend another organization that could provide that resource. It was very easy for the veterans to be able to find what they needed if they were looking for something specific. Reporter: Do the volume of people who needed help surprise you in any way? No. I had been informed that last year we had a little over 900 participants. So, the actual number of participants was actually 853. It was still a little more than we expected, but the numbers were down from last year. Reporter: You come to San Diego from a position as president of the Dixon Center for military services in Washington DC. The does a CEO position here present more of a challenge to you? It does because now I am very much in charge of a program specific organization. Before working with Dixon Center for military and veteran services, we were working with organizations providing the resources. So, we were educating them and the organizations and the communities on the specific challenges of veteran reintegration and the challenges that our military families have in the challenges the fallen have as a transition back into the community. Now I am put into the position where I am in charge of running programs and running services, but the great thing is the VFD has a great team. They have great programs that have been established for many years. So, having that knowledge already in place has allowed a very smooth transition between Phil and myself and I am very comfortable being able to take over indisposition and figure out now and transition programs as the needs of our veterans evolve. Reporter: It has been said that your personal background sounds like the plot to a novel. You were discovered as an infant on the road in Vietnam during the war and taken to an orphanage. Then you were adopted by an American Air Force Sergeant grew up in Wisconsin. That got me to wondering how your background influences your view of how people's lives can be changed by the help of others. Absolutely it is part of my decision. It is the way I think. Because I understand that I could have been left in Vietnam. I could have been -- as an orphan in Vietnam and as someone who was clearly not full blood Vietnamese -- my quality of life would have been very low had I even survived the war. So, understanding what a little bit of assistance can do to change the course of a life is really important to me. That has guided my decisions. It has guided my decisions especially over the last seven years when I have really become in tuned with working with military families and veterans as they are looking for those resources and as they are looking for the services that they need. Sometimes when we are sitting on the outside, you do not know what the tipping point is for a military family or the veteran’s family. You do not know what exactly it is that could create a situation that could cause that family structure to crumble or that veteran to completely give up hope. But perhaps if we could figure it out, be proactive and find that resource and service and reach out and provide that hand up that they are looking for, we can get them back on their feet and live healthy and successful lifestyles. Reporter: You served in the Navy in the early 2000's and the 90s. Has the fact that you are not a Vietnam veteran have caused concern to? Not at all. What has happened is as the veterans of today’s wars are coming back we see more and more residents are coming to our program of the post-9/11 generation. We have more and more veterans coming in that area of my generation. So therefore, I understand -- yes, I am not a Vietnam veteran but Vietnam veterans are the reason why I serve. In my mind, they have given me the ability and opportunity to serve, but it is the veterans of my generation and the current war is because I serve. Reporter: It seems that you are hoping to expand that mission but also embracing veterans who are beginning to have problems before they end up on the streets or with substance abuse problems -- to maybe intervene and find that Avenue when you can actually help them before something cataclysmic happens. Absolutely. If we can intervene before the end up on the street and provide that resource before they hit rock bottom -- as you may have seen, veterans don't ask for help. They are trained to not ask for help. They don't ask for help until the hit rock bottom but if we can be there. If we can be there right at the point where they need us to provide that service for them and their family so they can keep the house, they can keep their job, that could prevent them from ending up on the street and that is I think a goal that we want to have and we want to achieve. To try to intercede before the end up on the street. Before they contemplate suicide. Before they end up in divorce, making sure that their children are taking care of. Because children in our veteran’s families -- they suffer the effects of war seeing their parents come back. They become secondary care givers in addition to the spouse. The children also become caregivers as well. That affects them in the school and if you have higher dropout rates within the children you start having secondary effects of as I said the effects of war. Reporter: We wanted to welcome you and thank you for coming in and I have been speaking with Kim Mitchell the new CEO and president of veterans Village San Diego. Thank you. Smack thank you very much.