Dress, Right, Dress heads to Seneca county

If you talk to Jeremy Parkins, you would think he never left Tiffin. For him, the town will always be home. Parkins was born and raised in the town until he was 15 when he moved to southern Ohio with his mother. He moved back after his military service, where he met his wife before they moved back to southern Ohio. With Tiffin being home, it made the most sense for Parkins to move his veteran nonprofit Dress, Right, Dress here. Parkins began his military career in 1997 when he joined the Air Force. He spent eight years in a couple of deployments before heading into the reserves. When Parkins returned home, he had a difficult time transitioning to civilian life. "The people around me hadn't served so they didn't understand my mentality or share any similar experiences. It was a rough transitional period," he said. He struggled to find a job until a friend of his got him one. It didn't last very long — Parkins was fired. That caused him to turn to drinking. "I got into bar fights and there were times where I was spending just about every weekend in jail." During this tumultuous time, Parkins was living in Washington Courthouse with his mother. But she had grown tired of his antics and told him it was time to move back to Tiffin with his father. In Tiffin, Parkins met his wife and began to turn his life around. He earned a Master's degree in Criminal Justice, which he utilized for a career in corrections as a case manager. "I started seeing veterans who had similar experiences to me. If I hadn't turned my life around, I would be sitting where they were. I knew I needed to do something to better serve veterans and keep this from happening," he said. Parkins began developing case plans for working with veterans as a peer group. The veteran Parkins managed did everything together. It became a bonding experience as they learned their resources in their area and learned how to better handle civilian life. His planning allowed him to be promoted to director of two facilities in the state that had him move to southern Ohio. "We had a 90% success rate with our veterans, meaning 90% of the people I worked with did not go back to jail," Parkins said. In 2015, the idea that would eventually become Dress, Right, Dress started as a plan to sell t-shirts with a portion of the proceeds going to veteran services and organizations. But Parkins knew that wasn't all he wanted to do for his fellow vets. That is when he started a three-year process talking to programs and organizations that assist veterans and handle mental health issues. In 2017, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southern Ohio partnered with Dress, Right, Dress to help facilitate peer-to-peer support for veterans. Dress, Right, Dress became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in mid-2018 after an exhaustive search to find the right lawyer. In June 2018, the first program started. This is called Justice Involved Veterans and Mentors. Its purpose is to assist veterans who have found themselves in the criminal justice system by helping them find housing, resources and teaching them social skills. The second program is called Transitioning Service Members. It is intended to assist veterans in transitioning from military life into civilian life while helping them find resources in the area where they are returning home. Dress, Right, Dress also offers many social activities, such as digital coffee socials, golf outings and parties. Parkins is working on bringing Dress, Right, Dress to Seneca county and has received support from local friends, veterans and organizations. The Dress, Right, Dress board for Seneca county is in the works with the director already being chosen. "Our organization is all about being there for the next person," Parkins said. "Tiffin is always home and would have been the home of Dress, Right, Dress had I not moved away." Dress, Right, Dress accepts volunteers who are veterans, family members of veterans or veteran caretakers. Civilians can volunteer for Dress, Right, Dress activities and events. The organization provides a COVID safe environment by providing all of its services digitally at this time, Parkins said. For more information, contact Jeremy Parkins at (740) 656- 2701 or admin@dressrightdressinc.org. Also visit the organization's website at www.dressrightdress.org or Facebook page at dressrightdressinc.