Saluting Service

2022 Saluting Service
Celebrating 13 years of rebuilding lives and serving our Veterans
Thursday, November 10, 2022 | 6:00 – 9:00p
Each year the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC), comes together to celebrates Veterans Day by honoring those impacting the lives of Connecticut Veterans while also raising funds to provide free legal services to veterans with low income recovering from homelessness and mental health challenges.
At the 2022 Saluting Service we will honor Richard Brookshire, Co-Founder of the Black Veterans Project, with the Veterans Justice Award, and VA Errera Community Care Center, with the newly established Captain Celine Finn Award for Outstanding Medical Legal Partnership.
At the 2022 Saluting Service, CVLC raised more than $100,000 towards our mission to remove legal barriers for Connecticut Veterans.
2022 Details & Location
Thursday, November 10, 2022
6:00 – 9:00p
Award Presentation 7:00p
Hotel Marcel New Haven
500 Sargent Drive
New Haven, Connecticut 06511
Thank You to Our Headline Sponsors

2022 Honorees

Richard Brookshire, Co-Founder of the Black Veterans Project
2022 Veterans Justice Award Recipient
Richard Brookshire is the Co-Founder of the Black Veterans Project (BVP) an organization advancing storytelling, research and public education to address long-standing racial inequities across the military and veterans landscape. More recently, Richard’s advocacy helped to compel a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study to formally assess racial disparities in benefit allocation by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
As a storyteller, Richard leverages a background in political communications and marketing, digital advocacy and documentary filmmaking to deliver strategic and dynamic social-impact campaigns.
He’s previously served as Director of Communications for Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America and was the first person of color to help lead political communications at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s preeminent LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. Richard is an alumni of Columbia University SIPA, Fordham University and Morehouse College and is a former infantry Combat Medic and U.S. Army veteran of the War in Afghanistan.
His work has been highlighted by the New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, BBC, CNN, theRoot and others.
Richard currently leads communications for the Black Veterans Empowerment Council, a non-partisan coalition of 20+ national, state and local veterans organizations seeking to shift long-standing racial and economic inequities suffered by Black veterans throughout the United States.
VA Errera Community Care Center
Captain Celine Finn Award for Outstanding Medical Legal Partnership
The award is being presented to VA Errera Community Care Center for its critical mission to enable veterans struggling with mental illness, substance use disorders and/or homelessness to live successfully within their communities. The warmth of this center and its welcoming services exemplifies the warmth and kindness of Captain Finn.
About the Award
The Captain Celine Finn Award recognizes a CVLC clinician partner whose service and care for Connecticut’s veterans exemplifies the devotion and kindness Captain Finn embodied in her 28-year career as a nurse in the U.S. Navy. Captain Finn served honorably through both the Vietnam and Korean Wars. She is remembered for her dedication, skill, humbleness, honesty, and sincerity – a true patriot who spent her life guiding service members through storms of illness and pain.
Thank You to Our 2022 Saluting Service Sponsors
