Military Service Center | Video

Kristin Clouston | 8/16/2012

If you had free access to numerous services ranging from psychological to credit counseling and it was all in one place would you take advantage of it? Well if you`re a veteran you can.

The military service center in Bismarck has been open for three and a half years, but there are still veterans out there who don`t know about it. So today the center held an open house for all past and present military members and their families.

Sergeant Ivan Nychyporuk and his son Adam spent part of their day checking out cool things like the mobile veterans center and collecting school supplies.

"It`s great for families. They have a lot of stuff like financial counseling, so if you have any questions you can stop and ask those guys. I`ve stopped a couple of times myself, every time my whole question was answered," Ivan said.

Last year the center had almost 3,000 people come in for assistance.

"We provide services from the cradle to the grave, meaning we have all the services in between from child and youth program coordinators, we have doctors of psychological health, we have mental health workers, we have family assistance center coordinators. We have a personal financial counselor that helps military families if they want to get out of debt, reduce their credit or plan for retirement," said Service Member & Family Support Director Rob Keller.

The one stop shop has also become a model for other centers.

"It`s proven extremely successful. In fact so successful we`ve opened a military service center in Fargo. We lease the buildings and that is being paid for by state funds so there`s an investment on the state as well," Keller said.

South Dakota also plans to build two centers like the one in Bismarck, and hope to have them up and running within the next six months.

If you want to stop the Military Service Center, it`s at the corner of Airport Road and the Bismarck Expressway.

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