Fort Bragg Veterans Jobs Summit on August 12, 2014 at Fort Bragg, N.C. (Sara D. Davis/AP Images for U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation)
During a recent interview with Maureen Casey, chief operating officer at IVMF, I was able to get a better understanding of what the institute has to offer veterans and their families. The Institute provides nine national programs in career preparation and employment, entrepreneurship and small business training and community engagement. And with support from companies like JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, and Walmart, the Institute is able to provide these programs free of charge to veterans and eligible family members. Small business ventures and entrepreneurial opportunities are becoming a more common way of life for veterans transitioning into the civilian sector. Taking skills from military service for 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years can become very hard to translate into resume terminology, and the flexibility for family life adds to the desire to control their own destiny. Let’s look at a few of the programs which are helping veterans succeed.
Entrepreneurship for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). Service and war cause damage. Many service members have to adapt due to the severity of their injuries, visible or not. One of the first significant partnerships of American schools and colleges of business since WWII was founded at Syracuse University and is now offered at ten universities around the country. EBV helps bridge the distance between what a veteran can currently do due to their disabilities and how to be successful. The bootcamp-style program leverages the skills and resources of the schools to offer experiential training to post-9/11 veterans and their family members. Seventy-two percent of EBV graduates have started and continue to grow their own businesses.
Overall statistics of what impact the Institute is making.
V-Wise Women Veterans. Women veterans have been paving the way for longer than many can remember or in some cases acknowledge. V-Wise: Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship, focuses solely on women veterans, spouses or partners. And the power is in the connection. With roughly 200 women coming together for three days to brainstorm, share stories and make connections. There is a unique bond for females when they can come together in a safe environment. Immediately the need to prove they are “good enough” is removed because everyone around them understands the stereotypes which may exist. V-Wise empowers women veterans and military spouses/partners to find their passion and learn the business-savvy skills necessary to turn an idea or startup into a growing venture. In fact, 65% of V-Wise graduates have started and continued to grow their own businesses.
Onward to Opportunity–Veterans Career Transition Program (O2O-VCTP). If there is one thing veterans and family members are frightened of on the other side of military life, it is the concern of not having employment at all. Many technical trades are acquired by the service member overtime, and many spouses do things like volunteer and go without work for extended lengths of time. O2O-VCTP is an on-installation or virtual program for helping to lessen the fear of the unknown. Across 14 bases, and hopefully 18 by the end of the year, over 14,000 veterans and spouses have earned certifications making them more marketable for civilian careers. The program provides training in 30 different professional certification programs including direct-employment connections to over 500 companies.
America Serves. One last program which was very unique in regard to what IVFM is doing is America Serves. This particular service allows a community to give back to the military. Casey likes to say this specific application “allows the community to select the Institute.” The America Serves initiative, using a national technology platform from Unite Us, enables communities to communicate with one another all over the country. They bring together all the resources they have to service veterans and their families better and faster instead of having them go to multiple organizations. It’s about working together more efficiently. With this responsibility, the community can benefit long-term. It becomes a full circle of reward. And it ultimately gives what most veterans and their families are often looking for in the civilian sector: a sense of community and assistance.
As a military spouse whose hero is still active duty, there was something very enlightening about what Casey had to share with me, and it was the statistics. The proof is indeed in the pudding. Over 90,000 veterans, families, spouses, and partners have been successful with programs IVMF offers. The people who work for and the companies who support the cause honestly believe in the benefits of serving the less than 1%, and their families, who have served. The research is constant. IVMF is not afraid to say, “we do not understand, but we want to.” Their high-touch, or in my words sincere, approach within their programs shows they want the success rate to be consistently obtainable.
And then there was this one bit of information which throughout the whole interview Casey used openly and comfortably: These programs are free. Yes, free. The Institute for Veterans and Military Families, wants to give back to those who have selflessly sacrificed so much, and they want to assist the veteran population and their families to have the prosperous future they deserve.
