When you are the author of eight books, have a family history of military service, degrees in English, behavioral science and criminal justice and experience helping domestic violence victims, bringing your talents and experience to Maine’s Bureau of Veterans’ Services is a logical next step. And it is for Southport’s Sarah Sherman. As her mother Evelyn Sherman told her, “Everything you’ve done up to now has led you to this work.”

Sarah Sherman is the seventh generation of her family on the island. Conversations with her father Maurice Sherman, who received a purple heart for injuries during his World War II service as a forward observer, led her to start talking about the war with her veteran neighbors. In these conversations, she found “remarkable stories” which eventually became a number of books.

“Southport: The War Years, An Island Remembers”and “Heroes Among Us, A History of Boothbay Region’s Veterans During the Second World War” are among her many books offered from Cozy Harbor Press, the publishing company she started in 1996.

Combining undergraduate education in behavioral science and a master’s degree in criminal justice, Sherman worked for three years as a domestic violence legal advocate with New Hope for Women.

There she helped women, men, children and the elderly and ran a weekly domestic violence support group for the women’s pod at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. Sherman offered the group a focus on education. “I learned that there are a lot of layers to domestic violence and anyone could be a victim,” she said.     

When the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services looked for a director of strategic partnerships in 2018, Sherman responded. “Everything came together at the right moment,” she said. She had been advocating for veterans for years informally, responding to calls asking for her help.

Identifying benefits and opportunities

In her job at the Bureau, Sherman’s portfolio is broad, allowing her to find and remedy problems veterans are facing, connecting with organizations in Maine to identify benefits and opportunities for veterans. 

With Bureau Director David Richmond, she co-founded the Maine Safer Homes Task Force which is working to reduce the suicide rate in Maine – the highest in the Northeast, according to the Bureau – by promoting firearm and medication safety for veterans. The task force has distributed more than 2,500 gun locks and offers veteran-specific training for mental health professionals.

The Bureau also co-founded the Maine Justice Action Committee for incarcerated veterans. This group includes the Maine Department of Corrections, Prebble Street and the Maine Small Business Association. It creates a means for incarcerated veterans to meet with case managers via Skype, often revealing that the veteran has undiagnosed PTSD, a brain injury or other issues.

This program won the Veterans Administration’s Abraham Lincoln Pillar of Excellence award in 2020 for its innovation.  The Bureau’s work on behalf of homeless veterans won the same award in 2019.

“Now I can smile at my daughter’s wedding.”

By 2020, Sherman noticed the Bureau was receiving lots of requests from veterans for help with dental care. When she brought this to Richmond’s attention, he asked her to do a needs assessment to see how extensive the problem was. What resulted was a 105-page report that October.

As she explained, 10% of U.S. veterans are 100% connected to the VA, leaving 90% who have to take care of dental health themselves either through dental insurance or self-pay.

With these results, Sherman created the Maine Veterans Dental Health Network which officially started in May 2021. Dr. Mitch Couret, a member of Northeast Delta Dental in New Hampshire, awarded the program $35,000.

Sherman kept adding clinics to MDHN and the network now has 22. In December 2021, she received an email from Delta Dental that it was awarding $100,000 for veterans. When the 2022 waiting list opened, 165 veterans signed up for dental services in the first five days.

According to Sherman, “The money is there until the grant runs out. It’s first come, first serve.” One Maine veteran told her, “Now I can smile at my daughter’s wedding.”

Asked what she has learned from her work, Sherman said she’s learned humility. “They have given so much and ask so little in return.”

She’s happy to help veterans. “To earn that level of trust is wonderful.”