Cities across the country are finding social and economic benefits from using a housing-first approach toward helping the chronically homeless get permanently off the street. In other words, house them first, then help to stabilize their lives. This approach ends up saving communities money because chronically homeless people make such expensive use of government services.
According to a census taken last January, St. Louis has 100 chronically homeless individuals. Of those, 50 are veterans. So city officials decided to make a big push to house those needy soldiers by offering many of them furnished apartments, free of charge, as part of Operation: REVEILLE.
The money funding the program comes from a $750,000 HUD “rapid rehousing” grant. “They especially need a stable place to start their recovery journey,” Joanne Joseph, homeless program manager for the St. Louis VA, told Jesse Bogan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
On July 30, the 50 homeless vets turned up for a meeting about the program, and each was screened to determine if they qualified for housing. According Bogan, most of the men were between the ages of 50 and 65, but one — 25 year-old Army veteran Esa Murray — “represented the next generation of homeless veterans.”
Murray served in Tikrit, Iraq, but was sent home due to mental disorders. After living in a tent in Indiana with his wife, he made his way to St. Louis after they split up. He hoped to qualify for the new housing program, but his time in the service falls a few months short of the two-year minimum requirement to qualify for an apartment.
Despite this, clinical social worker Toby Jones agreed to admit him to the program. “By the time we are done with him in a year, he should be able to walk away and sustain himself,” Jones told Bogen.
The program has enough funding to house the men for about one year, while caseworkers will help them try to achieve independence. For those who can’t obtain it, there will be continued support. The men are required to participate in services and abide by rules if they want to stay in the sponsored housing.
Near the end of the event, Antoinette Triplett, head of St. Louis’s Homeless Services Division told these often-overlooked veterans something they aren’t used to hearing: “I want to apologize on behalf of our nation that you are veterans and had to be homeless.”
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Category: Advancing National Service
Transitioning to Civilian Life Can Be Difficult. So Microsoft Trains Marines in IT Before They Hit the Job Market
When military members leave the service, many struggle to find a job — often having to study for a new degree or certification in order to qualify for a position, all the while not being able to rely on consistent income.
To help solve this problem before it even arises, Microsoft is working with Marines at Camp Pendleton in California (and two other U.S. military bases), offering a 16-week certification program in Information Technology to soldiers planning to leave the service in the near future.
Sergeant Taylor Harris, one of the participants in the Microsoft Systems and Software Academy, told Bob Lawrence of ABC 10 News, “It’s great to be able to do this while we are transitioning because we still get a stable paycheck because we’re on active duty.”
Although none of the veterans are guaranteed a job with Microsoft, part of the academy is an interview training session that helps many of them secure an IT position. And at the end of the course, each of them is flown to Redmond, Washington to interview with the tech giant. Navy veteran Sean Kelley, Microsoft’s Senior Staffing Director of Cloud and Enterprise Group, told Lawrence, “70 percent of those who go through the program are working in the tech industry.”
In January, Kelley testified before Congress about what Microsoft has learned from its veteran recruiting efforts, and how the company believes that training veterans in IT can help solve the industry’s problem with finding enough people with technical skills to hire.
“Economic projections point to a need for approximately one million more STEM professionals than the United States will produce at the current rate over the next decade,” he told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “The United States graduates about 300,000 bachelor and associate degrees in STEM fields annually. Fewer than 40 percent who enter college intending a major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. It is clear that many people, including veterans, lack the technology skills and industry certifications employers look for to fill the tens of thousands of available IT jobs across a broad range of industries. Eight years ago when we started exploring how Microsoft could be helpful to our transitioning veterans, we were surprised to learn there were very few opportunities for veterans to acquire these in-demand skills.”
Classes like this one are helping many veterans find not only a job, but a high-paying and satisfying career. Tuition for the class costs about $3,000 on Camp Pendleton, compared to $10,000 to $20,000 for a similar certification course off base. Corporal Joseph Priest told Lawrence, “As soon as I heard about this opportunity, I jumped on it…you put a little bit aside for tuition costs, and might get a job that lands you between 60 to 80k. I think it’s worth it.”
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These Veterans Choose to Fish Instead of Cutting Bait
For centuries, people have turned to this activity to achieve tranquility, enjoy camaraderie and decrease stress. No, not yoga. We’re talking about fishing.
It’s little wonder, then, that a new generation of veterans finds the activity to be therapeutic. As a result, organizations are springing up across the country to promote fishing among our nation’s heroes.
Take A Soldier Fishing organizes group fishing expeditions and offers civilians a chance to let military members and veterans know how much they are appreciated by treating them to a day where the only stress is whether or not the fish are biting. Currently, there are chapters in Oregon, Florida, Texas and New York. Prospective volunteers, as well as veterans who’d like to fish, can sign up via an online form.
And in Maine, veteran fishing clubs are proliferating, with the new organization Back in the Maine Stream joining two others already in existence. Disabled Air Force vet Marc Bilodeu and Vietnam Marine Corps soldier Bob Pelletier founded the club with the goal of coordinating fishing expeditions among disabled service members. Their inspiration? Project Healing Waters, a national organization that plans fly fishing trips for active military personnel and veterans.
Before a fishing trip six years ago, Bilodeu told Deirdre Fleming of the Portland Press Herald, “I had been very discouraged. I couldn’t fish because of my disability. They dragged me out on a rock, put a fly rod in my hand. I was kind of miserable. It took me an hour to catch a 3-inch bass. Then it was so emotional, I cried like a baby. And I realized, I was back, and who was gonna stop me now?”
The problem was that Project Healing Waters only came to Maine once a year, so Pelletier and Bilodeu started Back in the Main Stream.
During the fishing trips, Pelletier told Fleming, “Marc and I rag on each other a lot. We can. We had one veteran who lost his hands. When he came out of the washroom I said, ‘You wash your hands?’ He goes, ‘Yup.’ But he hasn’t any. He knows where I’ve been. I know where he’s been. It’s really hard to explain to people who haven’t been in the military. They don’t understand. But I know the sacrifices he made.”
MORE: This Paralyzed Veteran Can Hunt and Fish Again, Thanks to the Generosity of His Community
This Supercomputer Is Helping Vets Transition Back to Civilian Life
When many of us last heard about Watson, the artificially-intelligent computer that scientists at IBM programmed to understand and respond to questions asked in normal language, it was destroying Jeopardy! mega winners Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on the famous quiz show, winning $1 million in prize money.
But Watson’s creators wondered if their machine could serve a higher purpose than embarrassing big-brained game show geeks, and now it will. Two weeks ago, IBM and USAA, the insurance company serving over 10 million military members, veterans and their families, announced that Watson’s brain power will be available online to all its members who are looking to transition out of the military and establish civilian careers. All they need to do is enter a query through Ask Watson on USAA’s homepage or mobile app.
Neff Hudson, USAA’s vice president of emerging channels, told Doug Henschen of Information Week, “More and more of the interactions that we’re getting from our members are coming through our digital channels, including our web and mobile sites, so we’re trying to make these channels as adept at delivering advice as a human being in our call center.”
Watson has been programmed to learn from each of its interactions, becoming more helpful at answering questions as it receives more input. Because transitioning from the military can elicit so many complicated questions — from what to do about health insurance, to how to craft a resume that will appeal to a civilian employer, to how to manage saving for retirement or the best way to fund an education — a wise guy like Watson is sure to be of assistance.
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Military Spouses Didn’t Feel Represented by Congress. This Initiative Helps Them Find Their Voice
After managing sales at a clothing boutique and earning a master’s degree in social responsibility and sustainable communities, Katie Lopez thought her experience spoke for itself. So when she couldn’t find a job after relocating last summer to live with her husband, an Army service member stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the challenge was unexpected. “I was surprised that at interviews, one of the first questions I was asked is when I was leaving,” she says, even though she didn’t know when or where her husband would be stationed next. “There was never any follow-up after the interviews, so I was getting more and more discouraged. And I knew I wasn’t the only one experiencing it.”
She certainly wasn’t. Studies show that labor markets near big military bases are often “saturated with overqualified military spouses eager to work,” according to the Huffington Post. Military spouses face additional challenges, like the fact that they don’t qualify for unemployment insurance when they lose jobs in more than 14 states, since changes of station are seen as “voluntary” moves.
Even when she did attend events geared at hiring veterans and their family members, Lopez found that most job recruiters were targeting veterans themselves — and the positions available were often entry level, virtual jobs that didn’t fit her level of experience. “There was nothing for those of us who were college educated and on a professional track,” Lopez says. “It’s disheartening to think we spent this time and put in the work to advance ourselves and our careers only to get entry level jobs at a call center.”
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In Gear Career is a nonprofit that helps military family members with all career-related challenges — from finding jobs and networking to education and professional training. Haley Uthlaut, a military spouse and veteran, conceived the idea in 2009 and then took it to Donna Huneycutt and Lauren Weiner, owners of a consulting firm focused on hiring veterans and their spouses. They helped her make the vision a reality. Although headquartered in Tampa, Florida, In Gear Career has more than 2,000 members in 22 chapters across the country, from Texas to Tennessee.
“The biggest issue we saw facing military spouses was the lack of a professional network — you don’t get that when you move every two or three years,” says Weiner. “We want to help military spouses stay employed, because big gaps on a resume are a red flag. And ultimately, if we get the spouses engaged, we’re going to keep our best and brightest in the military. It’s a military readiness issue at heart.”
Last October, during the government shutdown, Huneycutt and Weiner were in Washington, D.C. for a conference, watching C-Span during a break between sessions. Sitting with a member from Military Spouse JD Network, a group that helps military spouses maintain their legal careers amid relocations, Huneycutt and Weiner became increasingly frustrated listening to politicians on the screen blame their opposing party for the shutdown.
“Enough already!” one of them screamed.
“Fix it!” another one yelled.
“Forget about these politicians,” one finally said. “I’m sick of everyone telling me to call my congressman. I want to be my congressman.”
Looking back, it was a light bulb moment.
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Just one fifth of those who serve in Congress have any military experience, according to a September 2013 Pew Research Center survey. And the voices of military spouses have even less representation. “The number of veterans in Congress is only dropping,” says Amanda Patterson Crowe, executive director of In Gear Career. “And for spouses, that’s hard because we’re living the life that Congress makes decisions on, from child care to military pay. We had to figure out how to make our voices heard too, how to get into politics.”
So after the conference, In Gear Career teamed up with Military Spouse JD Network to create Homefront Rising, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at getting military spouses more involved in the political process, from volunteering for campaigns to running for office. “Many people don’t realize that military spouses are uniquely qualified to represent us,” says Weiner. “They’ve lived in small town America and cities, rural areas and overseas. They understand a slice of America that most people who stay in one place don’t.”
Homefront Rising launched this February with an event in D.C. and recently held its second gathering this June in Tampa. The daylong events are packed with seminars and sessions from elected officials, former service members and other leaders on topics like “Building a Public Image” and “How Extraordinary People Lead.”
Homefront Rising’s two events have already inspired several members, including Katie Lopez, to volunteer with local campaigns such as state-level House and Senate races. “I’ve found that when I approach campaigns, their leadership tells me it’s exactly what they want to hear — military spouses having an opinion and getting involved,” Lopez says. Even though she couldn’t attend, learning about the D.C. event motivated military spouse Susan Reynolds to begin writing a column in her local newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer, on military families. And Angelina Bradley was so inspired by the inaugural Homefront Rising event that she successfully lobbied the D.C. Public Schools’ Chancellor’s Parent Cabinet to add an additional seat for the nearby Bolling Air Force Base, where she is currently stationed, giving military families a voice in education that they previously didn’t have.
Should Military Dogs Receive the Same Level of Medical Care As Their Human Handlers?
There’s a special group of service members who’ve worked hard and risked their lives to keep people safe in war zones, detecting contraband and explosives and tracking down suspects. But when they return home with disabilities resulting from their service, they don’t receive complimentary medical care.
We’re talking about military working dogs, whose veteran handlers often foot the bill for expensive veterinary care. (Not to mention the shipping bill to return them to the States, which often costs thousands of dollars.)
Mike Dowling, retired Marine Corps Dog Handler and author of Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between A Marine and His Military Working Dog, recently spoke with Take Part about the problem.
“As a veteran, if I have a service-connected disability, I can go to the Veterans Affairs and get free-of-charge medical care,” he said. “But military working dogs who have service-connected disabilities, they don’t have any kind of free-of-charge medical care or even a discounted medical care. So these handlers are going to Washington D.C. to advocate for some kind of [fund] to be set up so that when they adopt these dogs they can pay for their care in retirement.”
One such instance is that of Cristina Collesano, a U.S. Navy Dog Handler. She had to pay $3,000 to transport her adopted service dog Zizi back to Michigan from Italy. After years of service during which she kept military zones safe, Zizi developed severe arthritis in her spine and shoulders as well as bone cancer. “She’s much more than just a dog to me,” Collesano said.
On behalf of their canines, military dog handlers are urging D.C. lawmakers to actually implement legislation that they passed last year: the Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act, which allows defense officials to create programs that fund military working dog medical care and transportation. Since then, no programs have yet been created (due to a loophole in the law), and for some concerned military members and their hard-working service animals, the time for action is now.
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Editor’s note: Cristina Collesano’s last name was incorrectly spelled in a previous version of this post.
After Combat, These Veterans Are Trying to Fit in with Their Generation
Most millennials would probably agree that their generation has had a tough break. They are viewed by their elders as lazy, they face a limited workforce and they are on the precipice of adulthood wondering how to make a difference. However, there is one group of millennials often left out of this equation working through the same problems and more: Veterans.
When millennial veterans return home, they are left working through their past while at the same time, preparing for their future with a group of people to whom they can’t relate.
As any twenty-something can testify, stepping onto a college campus for the first time is a nerve-wracking situation. It’s easy to get roped into a stereotype based on a first encounter, and, for veterans, that happens almost automatically. According to their peers, former soldiers are either aimless and hipster or psychologically wounded and suffering from PTSD.
Most often, neither is the case. It’s simply that the two groups are at different stages of life with different experiences.
Professor Joseph Arnett distinguishes millennials from what he dubs emerging adults. While a millennial defines a generation, an emerging adult is someone oscillating on the brink of adulthood. Most millennials are on that line, whereas veterans have usually passed into adulthood already.
“I would expect that when veterans come out of the military, they feel like they’re already there,” Arnett told The Atlantic. “They’re not in this in-between state that most emerging adults find themselves.”
Crossing that line mainly depends on responsibility — something that has been ingrained in millennial veterans.
While veterans have higher sense of responsibility, they also have a different understanding of stress. For them, upcoming finals just aren’t stressful compared to combat.
James Cetto was an infantry sergeant in the Marines Corps who deployed twice, was shot at and killed five men. Now, he studies business at Framingham State College in Massachusetts. For him, stress is something that his peers wouldn’t understand.
“When I talk to college kids about stress, I don’t try to put my service out there,” Cetto told The Atlantic. “But finals come by, and they lose their f*** minds about how stressed out there are, and I’m not saying they shouldn’t be nervous, but their lives won’t end if they get a B.”
Despite the differences, though, these millennials are all united by the same burning question: What is my place in the future? And that’s something that only time can answer.
MORE: This Veteran is Building Better Futures for Other Service Members
Despite Losing All Four Limbs, This Veteran Finds the Silver Lining Every Day
Retired Staff Sgt. Travis Mills is one of five soldiers who has survived quadruple amputee injuries. But Mills doesn’t dwell on what he’s lost. Inspiringly, he believes that he is the furthest thing from a sob story. His life is simply his story.
In 2012, Mills lost both arms and legs to an IED while in Afghanistan, but just seven weeks after his injuries, he was up on his (prosthetic) feet walking. According to the Chicago Tribune, Mills shared, “if I gave up and quit, someone’s got to take care of me. I’m too stubborn to let somebody spoon feed me.”
While in recovery, Mills spent time at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and became the guy who inspired everyone. Not only was he working towards full mobility, but he was also taking time to talk with other wounded soldiers and their families. He quickly earned the nickname of “mayor,” according to his foundation, the Travis Mills Foundation, which helps injured soldiers and their families.
Fotolanthropy (a nonprofit that shares inspiring true stories through photography and film), approached Mills to do a short film about him and his family. “Travis: A Soldier’s Story” won Best Short Documentary at the GI Film Festival in May and continues to be shown throughout the country.
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According to CBS, Mills is quite candid about his story, “I am a guy who lives with my wife and child… I just had a bad day at work.” Most mornings, Mills works out with a friend and says that the challenges that he faces are minor, compared to what other families have suffered.
Mills continues to inspire service men and women through his foundation. His motto throughout his recovery is now the motto of the organization, “Never give up. Never quit.” He helps wounded soldiers to deal with both the physical and emotional aspects of recuperation.
New York City resident, Tim Howe spoke with the Chicago Tribune about how, “once you see the movie, you won’t complain about anything in your life.” But perhaps, Katie Norris, film producer and Fotolanthropy founder explains Mills best: “His spirit is drawing people from across the country to want to learn more about this person who’s gone through so much and is still living to the fullest. And he genuinely is.”
When Veterans Need to Let Loose, These Volunteers Help Them Ride the Waves
When you picture a surfer dude, you probably think of Hawaiian shirts, beach bonfires, ukuleles and a carefree attitude toward life. All of which is the opposite of the image that comes to mind when you think of a brave veteran wounded while serving our country. But the recent Waves of Valor Surf Camp proved that both vets and surfers can hang 10 together.
Sponsored by Team Red, White & Blue and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the event took place at the Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, California on July 19. In total, four surf camps are scheduled for this summer, and this is the second year that volunteers have offered surfing lessons to veterans.
How do veterans learn how to surf? Each is teamed with four volunteers: a surf captain and three others on duty to fetch boards, help the service members mount the surfboards and assist with swimming when needed.
During the Huntington Beach event, the 17th Street Surf Shop closed for business for the day so its employees could volunteer — helping people such as Navy veteran Goldie Nwachuku catch a wave.
At first, Nwachuku was afraid but managed to stand up on a surf board for the first time. “It’s really good to have a smile on my face. I haven’t smiled in a long time,” Nwachuku told Ethan Hawkes of the Orange County Register.
Ryan Lee, Air Force vet, told Hawkes that surfing, “really helps relieve my stress, and it also helps me connect with the veteran community here and with the other volunteers.”
The program has proved so successful that for next year, organizers are planning a three-day surf event that will bring former soldiers from across the country to participate.
Whether the surfers can get any of the vets to yell “kowabunga,” however, remains to be seen.
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See the Sketches of Homeless Veterans That Speak Louder Than Words
Last year, we told you about Fort Lyon, a supportive residential community specifically for veterans recovering from addiction.
Recently, Richard Johnson, a writer and illustrator of Drawing D.C. Together: A Journal of Urban Sketches, and former USMC Combat Artist Mike Fay were invited to visit Fort Lyon for three nights to speak with and sketch recovering vets. Johnson has written extensively about the lives of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Johnson and Fay spent time with several veterans, including Spc. Joshua Aaron Smart (click here to see his sketch), who at age 32 is recovering from an opiate dependency that stems from his time in Iraq in 2003. Smart was in a car when a mortar round landed just outside, leaving him in recovery that lasted only a week.
“I used to save lives and now I’m a drunk,” explains Smart, who now sleeps on the floor because of night terrors that cause him to believe he is still in Iraq and has to dress in a hurry.
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Fortunately, Smart is just one of the many veterans who have come face-to-face with the brink of death and are choosing to move on and away from a life filled with drugs and alcohol.
Substance abuse is an escalating problem within the veteran community, but it may not start with alcohol or illegal drugs. According to the National Council on Alcholism and Drug Dependencet, “prescription drug abuse doubled among U.S. military personnel from 2002 to 2005 and almost tripled between 2005 and 2008.” And USA Today reports that, in 2009, “military doctors wrote almost 3.8 million prescriptions for pain relief for servicemembers.”
Although drug abuse is rising, the good news is that veteran homelessness is dropping. According to the U.S. Department of Housing, rates dropped 24 percent from 2010 to 2013.
The sketches that Johnson shares with the world show the men at their very core — including the fears that they have, the stories they can tell and the addictions that define them.
See more of the drawings here and here.