We’re proud to share that Qualified Listeners was recently featured in the Sterling Journal-Advocate, where reporter Callie Jones highlighted the work our organization does to reach veterans who need someone to talk to. Being recognized by a regional news outlet means the world to us — it’s a sign that the conversation around veteran mental health and suicide prevention is growing, and that communities across northern Colorado are paying attention.
The article centers on our founder and executive director, Greg Goettsch, a Vietnam Navy veteran who served three tours from 1968 to 1972 and spent nearly four decades concealing his veteran status. Sterling Journal-Advocate His story — and the realization that sparked the creation of this organization — reflects what so many veterans experience: the absence of a truly safe space to speak without fear of judgment. It was after participating in a Northern Colorado Honor Flight motorcade in 2011 that Goettsch began wearing clothing that identified him as a veteran, and discovered that other veterans would approach him unprompted and open up about their military experiences Sterling Journal-Advocate — conversations that laid the groundwork for Qualified Listeners.
The piece explains the core of what we do: training combat veterans to listen to other veterans, with the goal of reducing isolation and, ultimately, veteran suicide. Sterling Journal-Advocate We are not therapists or counselors, and we don’t try to be. What we offer is a judgment-free space and a trained ear — plus referrals to validated resources when veterans or their families need more specialized support. Sterling Journal-Advocate The article also highlights the geographic scope of our work: we serve approximately 112,000 veterans across eight counties in Colorado and eight in southeast Wyoming, engaging with or supporting around 300 veterans each month. Sterling Journal-Advocate
The Journal-Advocate feature also shines a light on the human scale of this work. In 2018 alone, our team listened to 184 individuals — including veterans, their spouses, daughters, and even grandparents — logging 362 hours of listening sessions and traveling over 4,100 miles to reach people where they are. Sterling Journal-Advocate Those numbers tell a story about dedication, but they also represent something more personal: each one of those hours was time spent making sure a veteran didn’t feel alone. That’s the heartbeat of everything we do.
We’re grateful to the Sterling Journal-Advocate and reporter Callie Jones for amplifying the voices of veterans in our region. If you’d like to learn more about our programs, refer a veteran for services, or explore how you can support our work, we invite you to visit qualifiedlisteners.org. And if you’d like to read the original article, you can find it here: Qualified Listeners Seeks to Get Veterans Talking — Sterling Journal-Advocate.