Colorado VBOC celebrates first anniversary

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The State’s first Veteran Business Outreach Center (VBOC) is celebrating its first anniversary.

Since opening last May, Colorado’s VBOC, which is partnered with the Mt. Carmel Veteran’s Service Center, has helped over 500 veterans or service-connected families start their business ventures from the ground up.

The VBOC’s Director, Kia Palmer, said there is no better job than to help make Veteran’s dreams come true. “For me, personally, it just… it fills my heart,” Palmer said. “My father’s a veteran. He served in the United States Army for 21 years, and to be able to serve veterans is my life mission…”

In fact, she has helped build the VBOC from the ground up. Present day, it is a full circle moment for her as the center now celebrates its one-year anniversary since opening.

“Colorado was one of those offices… that got a new VBOC,” she said. “So, prior to that we were covered by New Mexico, [and] we were covered by Montana.” Due to an expansion from the Office of Veteran Business Development, Colorado is one of the latest states to receive a VBOC after nearly ten years of advocation.

“We can help them with getting their paperwork together to submit to the SBA on ‘My SBA,’ to gain their certifications,” she said. “We have all of these resources in place to assist our clients.”

The process starts out with a short questionnaire online at veteranscenter.org . From there, you click on “Start your business today,” which will bring you to the main site where you can register with the VBOC.

Because the VBOC is housed under the Mt. Carmel Veteran’s Service Center there are additional resources that can coincide with someone’s business venture.

“For Mt. Carmel to have this grant and be able to provide those wraparound services, entrepreneurship is stressful,” Palmer said. “So, with our veterans, to be able to say you can ask for help, it’s okay, we have behavioral health, let’s find some healthy coping skills.”

For Palmer, the most rewarding part is utilizing her knowledge to help those who have sacrificed so much for our country to rise to greatness, in whatever enterprise they may have.

“To see them with this great vision; ‘How do I transition? Now I have an idea.’ Being able to provide services, not just at a local level, but bring in those national, those federal resources, and say this is the assistance that you’re asking for and it’s here now,” Palmer said.

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