Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Women Veterans Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
YWCA’s Operation Sisterhood seeks statewide funding to help New Jersey women veterans
Summary
Lucy Delgaudio, a U.S. Army veteran, told the Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee that Operation Sisterhood will provide housing, workforce development and trauma‑informed mental‑health services for women veterans; she asked the committee to support statewide funding to expand the program.
Lucy Delgaudio, a U.S. Army veteran speaking for the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, asked the Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee on the record to back Operation Sisterhood, a new program designed to help women veterans transition to civilian life.
Delgaudio told the committee that women now represent about 10% of the U.S. veteran population and that New Jersey has roughly 26,000 women veterans. She said a New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs survey found roughly 45% of women veterans in the state were unaware of the full range of Department of Veterans Affairs benefits available to them. "Operation Sisterhood will provide resource navigation services to bridge that gap and connect women veterans to vital state and federal resources," she said.
The program, as described to the committee, would combine resource navigation, housing assistance, workforce development and entrepreneurship training, and trauma‑informed counseling and peer support for survivors of military sexual trauma. Delgaudio said program leaders plan to expand housing and job training to reach an estimated 20%–25% more women in the state with additional funding and to add monthly counseling sessions and partnerships with mental‑health providers to reduce therapy waiting times.
Committee members thanked Delgaudio for the testimony and pressed for specifics on why homelessness rates among women veterans are higher. Delgaudio said transitional housing systems are often organized for men and may not accommodate children, and that many homeless women veterans have experienced military sexual trauma, which can make conventional shelters harmful or retraumatizing.
The committee offered general support and closed the public‑facing portion of the meeting with no vote on the program itself. No formal funding decision was made; Delgaudio requested that the committee consider statewide funding to sustain and expand Operation Sisterhood.
The committee adjourned after the presentation.
