LOWELL — Retired Brig. Gen. Jack Hammond is used to working with people who get things done, and he found a kindred spirit in UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen.
Wednesday afternoon, the executive director of Home Base and Chen signed a memorandum of agreement welcoming the nonprofit as a Lowell Innovation Network Corridor partner. Home Base will expand its regional footprint within LINC, and will offer critical resources to veterans and military families across northern and western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to heal from their invisible wounds.
“We’ve kissed a few frogs as we’ve worked to build these strategic partnerships,” Hammond said during a ceremony at UML’s Innovation Hub at 110 Canal St. “We look for a ‘Hell, yeah!’ If we don’t get a ‘Hell, yeah,’ we don’t have time. The chancellor came in and said, ‘Hell, yeah,’ and here we are.”
Home Base is a national nonprofit that serves the nation’s veterans and military families through world-class, direct clinical care, wellness, education and research — all at no cost — regardless of era of service, discharge status or geographical location.
Hammond said the nonprofit takes a “proactive approach” to partnerships in the furtherance of its lifesaving mission.
The partnership also reflects the university’s commitment to veterans and their families. More than 1,300 veterans and active-duty servicemembers are enrolled at the university, and UML has a long partnership with HEROES (Harnessing Emerging Research Opportunities to Empower Soldiers), a collaborative center with U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command that focuses on advanced research to support military personnel.
“That’s even more reason for our interest in participating in helping to make sure that we can help heal the wounds [of] those who have served and have served all of us,” Chen said. “Working with Home Base’s experience and expertise, UMass Lowell faculty, staff and students will help to create a new generation of leaders who understand what it means to be a veteran, and what it means to be a family of a veteran.”
Home Base is the latest organization to join the LINC project.
In March, the chancellor unveiled the $800 million LINC development plan that leverages the prestige and innovation of the university and the resources and history of the city of Lowell with the job creation capabilities of industry to envision a vibrant urban village/main street model and economic engine for the city.
Draper Labs, a company that operated the computer guidance system that helped land Apollo 11 on the moon, is an anchor tenant in the Wannalancit Mills pending construction on the three-phased campus community.
In July, the university and Mass General Brigham announced a collaboration to advance human performance research, and in October, announced a LINC partnership with Head Lamp, along with Mass Biodiversity to provide workforce development opportunities for veterans in life sciences.
“Today’s event welcomes Home Base to LINC, the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor,” Chen said to applause in a room filled with federal, state and local leaders, including UMass President Marty Meehan and UMass Trustee Mary Burns.
The collaboration will also include LINC partner Mass General Brigham, and aims to expand access to essential services, address the unique needs of veterans and military families across the region, and contribute to ongoing efforts to improve care for those impacted by traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress and other unseen injuries.
The UML site will offer both in-person and telehealth services, expanding Home Base’s reach to underserved areas. It will be located near the university’s ROTC program. This strategic location will create a collaborative environment supporting future innovations in veterans’ health and national security.
“With all humility, we know we’re good at what we do,” Hammond said, “but we’re not good at everything. We know we have partners who excel in their areas and we want to be best friends and partners for the common good and the greater good and for the veterans you have here on campus and elsewhere.”
Home Base was founded in 2009 by Tom Warner, president of the Red Sox, and Peter Slavin, then-president of Massachusetts General Hospital, to address the gap in care that the nation’s veterans faced that was evidenced by the high rates of suicide.
“We sustained an epidemic of veteran suicides,” Hammond said. “We lost more than 30,000 veterans to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but during that same period of time, we lost 150,000 to suicide.”
The general and UMass alum said money wasn’t the only or animating solution, and pointed to “strategic partnerships” like with UML through LINC as a way forward in addressing veterans’ issues.
“The Veterans Administration budget grew from $40 billion in 2001 to $400 billion this year and we’re still losing 30 veterans a day,” Hammond said. “It’s not about the money. Strategic partnerships is where Home Base excels.”
Home Base has provided lifesaving care and support to over 40,000 veterans and their families across all 50 states, five territories and 13 countries, and trained more than 85,000 clinicians nationwide. Now, Lowell is its latest outpost.
“It’s a great day for all of us,” Hammond said.