Starting a company takes courage, energy, and determination — all qualities that many servicemen and women display on a daily basis.
John Panaccione served as an 82nd Airborne paratrooper and then started a software company, LogicBay, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He’s convinced that other vets have what it takes to start their own businesses. Through VetToCEO, the nonprofit he co-founded, he’s showing them just how to do it.
VetToCEO enrolls former servicemen and women in an eight-to-10-week program that groups them with other vets who are at different stages along the road to launching their businesses. Together, they learn to craft a business plan, find potential investors, deliver presentations, connect with mentors, and potentially find a business partner that also happens to be a fellow vet. The organization also offers the in-person and online classes to reach more participants, and the course is free to all vets, funded by donations and corporate grants.
“Statistically, there are thousands of veterans all over that have an interest in entrepreneurship — and many of them are outside the U.S.,” Panaccione told Ben Brown of Port City Daily. Veterans and service members stationed as far away as Kuwait are participating in the program.
Brown spoke to one of VetToCEO’s successful graduates, army veteran Joel Damin, who started his own restaurant and pub in Sanford, North Carolina. Damin said that the skills he learned in the military immediately transferred to his busy career as a restaurateur. “You’re always reacting, you’re always adapting, and you can’t just throw your hands up and go, ‘I don’t know, this isn’t what I wanted to do,’ and just stomp your feet. You can’t do that, because there are lives on the line and you have to complete the mission.”
Now that there are just tasty dinners on the line instead of lives, Damin is thriving.
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Tag: Employing Veterans
Veterans Ask Employers to Give Them a Chance in This Moving Video
In 2013, the unemployment rate averaged 9 percent for veterans (according to Reuter’s) compared with the current 6.7 percent for all Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While these stats demonstrate the employment difficulties facing many veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, they aren’t nearly as powerful (nor do they bring home the issue of veteran unemployment) as the personal tale of Army veteran Kayla Reyes.
Last week, a video of Reyes talking about how she felt discriminated against because of her service during an interview for a job with Macy’s went viral. Macy’s issued a response and offered her a job, but Reyes had already found a different job, as well as support from thousands of people who don’t want to see veterans treated this way.
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The Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit that identifies and provides funding to effective job placement programs for veterans, recently released a moving video of other veterans talking about their difficulties finding employment in the hopes that many of them will achieve the kind of happy ending that Reyes did — and that more employers will become inspired to help vets find jobs.
“I have a purple heart because I was wounded in combat,” one veteran says on the video. ” I thought I was going to bring it in and people would be like, ‘You’re a warrior, that’s pretty awesome! Come on board, you’re good!’ But that wasn’t the case.”
“The jobs weren’t as good as I thought they would be,” a former Marine explains. “You were in the military, perfect. We have a security position. It’s nine dollars an hour. You’ll love it because you get to hold the gun again.”
One veteran says employers seem to have the vision of “Hollywood PTSD” in their heads. “People see these movies with these guys freaking out, and think that I’m the same way.” Another veteran speaks for many when he says, “Give me a chance. Let me prove myself.”
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Does Military Jargon Prevent Vets From Landing Jobs?
MP. XO. AIT. This list could go on and on.
Military communications are often full of “alphabet soup” — choked with so many acronyms that it’s virtually impossible for someone who hasn’t served in one of the branches of service to understand what’s being said. In San Diego, the unemployment rate among veterans stands at a disappointing 10 percent, and representatives of Easter Seals Southern California wonder if part of the problem has to do with vets failing to translate the military jargon on their resumes into concepts that potential employers understand.
Amita Sharma of KBPS interviewed John Funk, the director of military and veterans services for Easter Seals Southern California, about their WorkFirst Military & Family program to help vets find a good job in part by learning civilian-speak. He said, “The military speaks a different and unique language, full of acronyms. Part of the challenge with the transition of veterans is to get them to speak that language so that people can understand it.” On their resumes, vets should include “not just the direct job that they may have had while they were in the military, but they can also translate the soft skills that were associated with that — how they’re very goal-oriented, their leadership, their teamwork capability, their results-oriented approach to getting the job done.”
Funk says that Easter Seals also works with employers, advising them, “Don’t hire a veteran just because he’s a veteran. Hire a veteran because he has these great strong attributes he can bring to your organization.”
Every veteran who enters the WorkFirst Military & Family Program meets individually with Easter Seals volunteer and employees, who help them to define career goals and job-related skills. Then, vets receive assistance crafting a story about their work experience and their goals for the future using language that an employer will understand — both on their resumes and in job interviews. From there, job-seeking veterans are connected with employers.
For Tim Crisp, a Marine Corps veteran working with Funk, the help has been invaluable. He told Sharma, “John [Funk] gives me that customized experience, working with me to narrow down my focus to help me be more goal-oriented toward doing something that’s going to really fit for me…as a mentor and a coach, his experience helping others…has been very helpful.”
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How One Woman Helps Vets Dress for That Oh-So-Important Interview
Most people reach for their nicest clothes when dressing for a funeral. But back in 2010, when Star Lotta attended the funeral of her cousin Jimmy, a Marine Corps veteran who returned from service suffering from PTSD and died of a heart attack at the young age of 23, she noticed that the veterans in attendance weren’t wearing suits.
This stuck Lotta as unusual and she wondered if it was because they couldn’t afford the formal clothing, which can be quite costly. Coincidentally, Lotta ran a business selling custom-made suits, so she started asking her clients if they had old suits they no longer wanted that they could donate to veterans. Soon, Suiting Veterans — a non-profit in Wilmington, Delaware that outfits veterans for job interviews in donated business suits and stylish dress clothes for women — was born.
Retiree Jack Doyle, who has worked as an Army finance clerk and as a men’s clothier at Macy’s, volunteers with the organization. “It’s just a way of kind of giving back to guys who are serving our country,” Doyle told William H. McMichael of USA Today, “And it’s a lot more fun than working on commission.”
According to the non-profit’s website, it has gathered over 200 suits for women and 600 for men. Lotta lets veterans know about her services by visiting veterans’ job fairs. She’s received so many donations that the space where Suiting Veterans is based is virtually filled to capacity. So she has started loading suits up in a donated truck and taking them to such places as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey to meet veterans there. She’s received so many emails from veterans across the country who’d love to receive a suit that she hopes to one day expand Suiting Veterans nationwide.
We salute the success of Lotta and her army of suiting volunteers.
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Can This Recreational Activity Heal Vets and Help Them Find Jobs?
There’s nothing better than the feel of the sun on your face, the smell of salt water in the air and the breeze blowing through your hair. For some veterans, hitting the open seas in a sailboat could be exactly what they need.
The Bayfront Maritime Center of Erie, Pennsylvania, already serves some veterans through its volunteer-run EASE (Erie Adaptive Sailing Experience) program, but now it’s ramping up its efforts to reach out to even more through its new Veterans EASE program. Bayfront Maritime Center Executive Director Rich Eisenberg told Ron Leonardi of the Erie Times-News that they will partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the VA Hospital in Erie, to provide healing experiences to former service members.
Only 40 percent of returning veterans in the Erie area make appointments with counselors, and of those that do, only 40 percent return for a follow-up visit. Eisenberg thinks that sailing could prove more therapeutic for veterans than a visit to a counselor’s office, especially given the success of a similar program, Veterans On Deck, in Charleston, South Carolina. Veterans EASE will feature year-round programs that focus on not only sailing, but also boat maintenance and building activities.
The center also plans on helping participants find employment, too. “Right now, there’s a 20 percent shortage of skilled workers in the maritime industry,” Eisenberg told Leonardi. “That’s projected by the U.S. Coast Guard to go to 35 percent in 10 years, because a lot of the personnel are retiring. These are excellent, high-paying jobs, and veterans are well positioned to be filling these positions because of all their military training.”
Sounds like a day of sailing could lead to a full-fledged job for some Pennsylvania veterans.
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This Non-Profit Helps Paralyzed Vets Find Meaningful Jobs
“When you go to some of these interviews and you roll up in your chair, you can see it in their faces, ‘Oh, man.’”
That’s how Enrique Chavez, a paraplegic veteran from Long Beach, California, described what it’s like trying to find a job as a disabled veteran to Andrew Edwards of the Press-Telegram.
Fortunately, a program called PAVE (Paving Access for Veteran Employment) is assisting severely disabled veterans like Chavez gain employment. Over the past seven years, PAVE has helped 439 of the 2,500 veterans who joined the program find jobs. “While that number might not seem scintillating at first blush,” said Sherman Gillums of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (an organization that aids U.S. vets), “we are focusing on the hardest to place: those with severe disabilities.” Gillums, himself is a Marine corps veteran who was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident in 2002, understands the unique challenges disabled vets face.
Paralyzed Veterans of America offers the PAVE program at seven locations in the United States, and makes its services available online to any veteran who wants to participate. PAVE counselors help veterans craft a resume using their military experience that will appeal to civilian employers, figure out the paperwork they need to access their benefits, learn about the differences between military and civilian culture, and recover from their wounds and psychological trauma. PAVE also reaches out to potential employers, informing them of the tax benefits they can receive from employing a veteran.
Navy vet Mike Metal fount a job with the Volunteers of America in Santa Ana, California with the assistance of the PAVE program. He told Edwards, “I love coming to work every day.” It’s clear the Paralyzed Veterans of America won’t rest until every vet they work with can say the same.
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This Restaurant Is Looking to Hire a Few Good Vets
What’s better than enjoying a plate of delicious seafood while looking out onto the ocean? Not much, actually. But if you can enjoy that meal and help Americans veterans at the same time, then all the better.
At the Cast-N-Cage restaurant on Bradenton Beach Pier in Florida, patrons can do just that. That’s because the eatery’s owners, Tammy Kemper-Pena and her husband Roland Pena, are veterans who want to hire other former service members. “We want to give veterans a place to work and feel comfortable where they can relate with other veterans and be able to share their stories and help them with any issues they may have,” Kemper-Pena told Randi Nissenbaum of Bay News 9.
Opening the restaurant marks a comeback in more ways than one. During her military service, Kemper-Pena suffered a back injury and two brain injuries, and Pena broke his back while serving in Iraq. Additionally, a year and a half ago, Tropical Storm Debby damaged the historic pier on which the Cast-N-Cage now sits in Sarasota Bay. The pier was closed for repairs until recently, when a bait shop opened and the Cast-N-Cage held its grand opening on March 1.
The Cast-N-Cage offers a ten percent discount to veterans and those who are on active military duty. They’ve already hired 10 veterans, and are looking to employ more. Navy veteran Glenn Schneider told Bay News 9, “It almost makes me cry. It’s touching that someone out there is helping other veterans.”
Judging from the photos on the restaurant’s Facebook page, there doesn’t look like any better place for a newly-returned veteran to recuperate than at this restaurant on the ocean filled with food, music, and camaraderie.
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When This Sergeant Saw Vets Lined Up For Jobs, He Decided to Create Some for Them
When Sgt. Alec Haggerty of Killeen, Texas saw a line of veterans standing outside a military staffing agency, waiting their turn to apply for a job, he knew he had to do something to help. So he started EcoGrunt Home Improvements, a green construction and renovation business that currently employs five active-duty and retired military servicemen. It seemed a natural venture for Haggerty, who comes from a family long involved in both the military and construction.
EcoGrunt specializes in both commercial and residential spaces, offering a range of services from small handyman repairs to larger landscaping projects such as deck and rock wall additions. Starting a company was just the beginning for Haggerty, who recently launched a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising money for wounded veterans who need to remodel their homes because of injuries. Haggerty is pledging to match every dollar donated with donated services through his construction company. “I know I can’t help everyone, but maybe if I do this it will start a chain reaction,” Haggerty told Valerie L. Valdez of Killeen Daily News.
A No Brainer Job for Ex-Drill Sergeants: Motivating the Rest of Us
Valetta SuRae Stewart of District Heights, Md. served for 23 years in the Army, and left worried that the only skills she had to offer the civilian job market were “breaking things and killing people,” she told Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post. But then she realized she’d developed an extremely valuable aptitude as a drill sergeant: She knew how to motivate people to lose weight and get in shape. In November, Stewart earned her certification as a personal trainer, entering a field that’s in high demand thanks to a Salute You Scholarship from the American Council on Exercise.
The program granted her $700, one of 226 scholarships it’s given out to veterans in the past six months, and G.I. Bill benefits helped her study at the National Personal Training Institute. Salute You has certified nine trainers including Stewart, and sets up vets with interviews at fitness centers with the overall goal of using veterans’ skills to fight the obesity epidemic. Stewart is now completing an apprenticeship at Atlas Fitness in Washington, D.C.
Stewart plans to become an all-around wellness consultant, a path that was inspired by her work as a hairdresser between stints in the military. When you fix hair, she told Bernstein, “You learn very, very intimate things about people. And everybody was broken. This one had heart disease; this one’s mother had just died from cancer, this one had high blood pressure. . . . That’s what sent me to nutrition.”
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New Mexico Needed Police Officers, So Why Not Put Some Vets To Work?
New Mexico’s police departments were chronically understaffed, but officials thought veterans in need of jobs might offer a solution. The New Mexico Department of Public Safety carefully studied the training regimen for military police, and found that about ten years ago, the military changed its training methods to more closely match those used for civilian police. They decided to create a new program for veterans who’d served in military law enforcement, called Transition With Honor, giving them the chance to qualify as civilian police officers by taking a free one-week course, followed by a test, compared with four months of classes non-veterans must take to join the force.
Mike Sine is the first veteran to take advantage of this program. He served at Kirtland Air Force Base as a military policeman, and enrolled in the program after he left the Air Force. He found a job as a police officer in Bosque Farms, south of Albuquerque, just two months after completing the fast-track program.
Now, he’s spreading the word to other veterans. “Hopefully, I’ll be helping a lot of people on base make the transition,” Sine told Charles D. Brunt of the Albuquerque Journal. “Some of my old coworkers have been contacting me, so hopefully that program will continue to expand.”
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