Addressing the needs of homeless veterans in Southern Maryland will be the focus of a Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education, and Networking Group meeting on August 14, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Frank Knox Training Center at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The center is outside of gate two near the intersection of Great Mills Road and Rte. 235.

CHALENG is an initiative of the US Dept of Veterans Affairs and joins the VA medical centers with other federal, state and local agencies and nonprofit organizations to assess the needs of homeless veterans, develop action plans to meet identified needs, and develop directories that contain local community resources to be used by homeless veterans. More than 10,000 representatives from non-VA organizations have participated in Project CHALENG initiatives to raise awareness of the needs of homeless veterans to create new partnerships in the fight against homelessness, and developing new strategies for future action.