An organization located on the Rocky Boy Reservation has been providing services to Veterans since 2015. The cofounder of the organization, Chauncey Parker tells the story of founding the organization.
“So, the Great Plains Veterans Service Center is actually formerly known as the Rocky Boy Veterans Service Center. Myself and a cofounder John Guardapi Senior, we cofounded the organization back in 2015. The purpose behind that was myself and John, we worked under a Small Business Administration Veteran program to help Veteran entrepreneurs. At the time we were providing a lot of those business outreach services. We had found a lot of Veterans were facing just far too many issues to even think about starting a business or even being a business owner. So, it was at that point we decided well we need something a little more that can help them improve their quality of life and so we came up with the concept of starting the nonprofit and starting it here on the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation.”-Chauncey Parker
Chauncey Parker continues to explain the unique aspects that distinguish the Great Plains Veterans Service Center.
“So, I think just being a Native led organization, mostly staffed by American Indian Veterans being able to be a Veteran oriented organization that we can provide a lot of that Native insight and not just the native side of things, but I think overall Veterans, rural Montana Veterans. I think we have a fairly good understanding and being that resource where Veterans can just come and be a part of that community and be part of an organization that they used to have when they were in the service.”-Chauncey Parker
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