After three years in the making, the Santa Clarita Veterans Center celebrated their grand opening Saturday morning.

The Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative welcomed community leaders and residents for a ceremony to officially open the Veterans Center in Newhall.

“This is just the beginning, not the culmination,” said Elliott Wolfe, one of the co-founders of the collaborative. “In order to make it successful, we need veterans to come down and use the services.”

The veteran center offers resources, services, and support to veterans, active duty military personnel and their families.

The focus of the collaborative is to help secure jobs, housing, transportation, health and human services, education and legal services for our veterans and their dependents, according to their website.

Santa Clarita community leaders were in attendance at the event including Congressman Steve Knight, Assemblyman Dante Acosta, Mayor Pro Tem Marsha McLean and Councilman Bob Kellar.

Knight and Kellar are both United States military veterans and Acosta’s son, Army Specialist Rudy Acosta, was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan.

The Santa Clarita Veterans Center had their “soft opening” back in December after Home Depot donated about $10,000 of furnishings for the space.

“They provided a brand new wood plank floor, paint for all newly painted walls and ceiling, refrigeration, new toilet and storage cabinets,” said Wolfe. “We have a lot of love for what they do, we can’t repay them enough.”

The center is set to be “one-stop shopping” with a reference desk which will provide a multitude of services to the veteran population.

These services include employment opportunities, counseling and therapy, education, transportation, legal and medical services, benefits assistance and a host of additional choices.

“Veterans can also just come on down and ‘hang out,’ read from the library, play a game or two, do a jigsaw puzzle, kibitz with other veterans and sign up to participate in support groups,” said Wolfe.

Every Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. the Food Pantry will be providing their services, allowing veterans and their families to enjoy the week’s offerings.

Donations to assist veteran families are much appreciated, addressed to the Veteran Services Collaborative at the Lyons Avenue address, according to officials.

The Collaborative will continue meeting at the College of the Canyons on the 3rd Friday of every month, 11:30 a.m. in room 301 of University Center.

The Santa Clarita Veteran Center is located at 23222 Lyons Avenue in Newhall.

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