Tri-Ad Veterans League
Education is a Weapon for Change
Tri-Ad Veterans League, was founded as a volunteer community based Veterans advocacy organization by Haywood Fennell, Sr. and a few other veterans attending colleges in the Tri-Ad area of North Carolina more than thirty years ago. The Tri-Ad Veterans League, is committed to the principle of collaboration in working with other veteran’s organizations to do the following: enhance health services for veterans, develop strategies for harm reduction in the areas of substance abuse, promote HIV/AIDS awareness, to outreach the education of Prostate Cancer, remove health disparities, and facilitate veteran’s involvement in community education/cultural pro-jects.
Haywood Fennell, Sr.
Founder and CEO
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Haywood Fennell, Sr. was born in Harlem, NY. He lived his early years in Wilmington, NC and attended Williston High School. He returned to New York City and joined the US Army for six years during the Vietnam War as an Information Specialist and photographer. He moved to Boston in 1978. He is a community organizer and educator using the principle of collaboration to get things done.
Haywood is a staunch advocate for Veterans rights. He is the Founder of Tri-Ad Veterans League, a volunteer Veterans organization involved in cultural enrichment programs and literacy. He founded the Oscar Micheaux Family Theater Program Company in 1997, a community based theater program. He is the Playwright in Residence and has written six plays and has self produced four. He is a children’s book author of the Coota book series and the first writer/researcher for the Coota Literacy Enhancement Project that focuses on improved literacy concepts with Black themes designed for middle school students.
He is the Founder of the Stanley Jones Clean Slate Project, a think tank modeled project for CORI Reform along with improved transition services for those returning to the community from incarceration. He is the Chairman for the Veterans and Friends of the General Edward O. Gourdin Statue Committee raising funds for the statue that will represent Black Veterans history and will be located in Roxbury’s General Edward O. Gourdin Park.
Haywood has worked in the field of substance abuse and mental health disorders and earned a certificate of completion at U/Mass Boston. He is the Host of the popular BNNTV and radio program The Other Page and is a graduate of U/Mass Boston with a BA in Community Organizing. He is a widower and his children and their families live in New York City. Haywood loves to write. He has written eleven plays and has produced four. He has written and self published four books and is the Founder of the Coota Literacy Enhancement Project. Haywood lectures on the Dynamics of Black History with focus on the Harlem Renaissance Era.
Mission:
To care for our veterans by Veterans and to use them as resource for assisting in community development by educating the Public for the purpose for empowering.
Membership:
While primarily a Veterans group membership is open to all who share the vision of the Tri-Ad Veterans League, , However, as a condition of its charter and to maintain it’s non-profit status the group must maintain a majority membership of United States Veterans. The composition of the Board of Directors reflects the rich cultural diversity of the community.
ACTIVITIES/COLLABORATIVES: Other Faces and Places for Veterans Living with HIV/AIDS, a joint health awareness out-reach education event with other community based organizations. “Double Trouble, a Look at HIV and Hepatitis C, a co-infections”, a luncheon forum with a featured expert speaker. Healthy Mind, Spirit and Body Health Expo C Collaborators from other community-based agencies focusing on community specific health issues, e.g., prostrate cancer, HIV/AIDS hypertension , smoking cessation, etc. State of Minority Veterans Health Affairs Scientific survey on African American veterans health disparities collaborative with the Boston Department of Public Health and Northeastern University. First Roxbury 9/11 Memorial and Tribute Service Annual World AIDS Day