A new group that connects veterans with the services they need is holding its first conference in Charleston.

The project is called CareNet. It's sponsored by the West Virginia Council of Churches and other groups. Through mini-grants and outreach, they’re trying to link veterans with churches, non-profit groups and others who want to help them and their families

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It’s only the second such program in the nation. And according to at least one Iraq War veteran, it’s sorely needed.

Twenty-three-year-old Benjamin Wood of Charleston spent four years in the Marines, ending with a tour of duty in Ramadi, one of Iraq’s toughest war zones.

When he came home to West Virginia last year, he says it was hard to adjust -- like re-connecting with his wife, who had learned to survive without him.

"Just all those little things that I used to take care of, she had to start taking care of. And when I got back, I’m trying to find my role, my place, what do I need to do. And I just kind of felt like an extra limb there for a bit. A little awkward, a little gangly, like I didn’t really fit in. And that was the same with my family, you know -- missed and loved, but life had moved on," Wood says.

That’s where CareNet comes in. It’s supposed to connect returning veterans and their families with the services they need, such as education, employment and counseling.

Lt. Colonel John Morris set up a similar program for the Minnesota National Guard. But it’s sometimes hard to convince service members to accept help.

One example - 30 days after guard troops return from combat, he calls them back for special training.

"I’ll be very frank. Most soldiers we deal with, coming back after 30 days is a hardship," Morris says. "They don’t like it and they’re very vocal about it. What we find is most families are very excited to have them come back after 30 days, because they’re already seeing some of the readjustment challenges that they’re going to face. By the end of the events, we have soldiers coming up to us, self-identifying, I need some further help, or identifying some of their buddies. And their family members are taking advantage of some of the counselors on site."

When Woods left the Marines last fall and came back to West Virginia, he says he felt isolated. He started taking classes at West Virginia Tech, but he was reluctant to tell other students that he was in the military. He didn’t want to deal with the stereotypes – that all veterans are disturbed or violent.

"It’s something that you’re really scared of, because you want to be normal, you want to have a normal life, you want to be perceived as normal. You don’t want any extra stress or anything complicating that."

So what should the rest of us do for returning service members? Morris says it’s the little things. Offer to babysit. Help fix the clogged sink. And stay away from politics.

"What not to say? Most of us are not interested in talking about foreign policy, and yet we constantly get asked, or told what people’s foreign policy opinion is. That isn’t helpful," Morris says. "We’re certainly not open to the question, 'Did you kill somebody?' "

Morris says efforts like CareNet are exactly what is needed.

"This Carenet that you have here is nation-leading. I think West Virginia can be rightfully proud of itself. You have formed something out of the faith-based community that’s reaching out to the military, saying, 'We stand ready to help.' "

The goal is to treat these new veterans better than we did others, says Rev. Dennis Sparks, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches.

"We want to make sure that this generation of veterans returns to our communities, not in the same way we did in the post-Vietnam era. Yes, many veterans came home and became very successful. But we had very many veterans also who are now on our streets as homeless in Charleston, West Virginia and around America. We can’t let that happen again," Sparks says.

Wood is far from those homeless veterans. Besides college, he has an internship this summer with a fellow Marine, West Virginia Secretary of Administration Robert Ferguson.

Still, he says the conference did his spirits good.

I didn’t understand how much is going on behind the scenes and how many people are legitimately concerned about this," Wood says. "Just for me and my own well-being, this is nice. Sometimes it is easy to feel kind of forgotten or neglected. It’s just the nature of the beast, I guess."

The CareNet conference continues today at the Charleston Civic Center.