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The Town of Cutler Bay hosted a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony for the South Dade Women Veterans Alliance Inc. on Saturday, Mar. 25, to honor the new organization and in celebration of Women’s History Month.
Attending the ceremony, first in the Town Council Chamber and then in the office space provided in the town’s municipal building, were Julie Robinson and Clara Garcia of the SDWVA, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, District 8 County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, District 9 County Commissioner Kionne McGhee, Town Vice Mayor Michael Callahan, Town Councilmembers Richard Ramirez and Suzy Lord, and many other invited guests.
Called “A Place for Me,” the South Dade Women Veterans Alliance is the first Women Veterans Organization in Miami-Dade County and the first and only Women’s Veterans Organization in South Florida.
SDWVA director Julie Robinson was pleased to participate in the grand opening of a project that had been years in the making.
“It was an amazing event; everything I ever wanted,” Robinson said. “It’s beyond what you could imagine. This has been my vision for this program for this actual space for probably five or six years.”
Robinson said that she had begun working on the program back when Mayor Levine Cava was the District Commissioner, before becoming county mayor.
“In the 22,167 square feet space we’re able to provide a lot of different services,” Robinson said. “We have every service for women veterans under one roof. That is the purpose; that is the goal — to help women veterans like other veterans. They do not have to run all over town and they’re in a very safe, secure environment for them to heal and grow. There’s nothing like it anywhere.”
Robinson, an Army veteran, knows firsthand what women veterans face. She had experienced the complexities of the VA Healthcare System firsthand and wanted to make the process of navigating it easier for her fellow veterans.
“I am a woman who served in the military,” Robinson said. “I’m a survivor of military sexual trauma and intimate partner violence. I am a previous employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs so I have had a lot of experience in these areas and I want to do everything I can to ensure the safety, the health and integrity of women who have served in our military.
“They deserve the honor. They deserve it and they should not continue to be marginalized.
The only time we really hear about women veterans is when Veteran’s Day comes along, or something happens.”
Robinson said they are still working on their website, putting in the new logo.
“We changed over to South Dade Women’s Veterans Alliance so it was clear as to the population that we were serving,” she said.
She hopes that her organization will inspire similar projects in other states. To learn more about SDWVA, visit www.southdadeveteransalliance.org.
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