Tag Archives: Resources

Sea of Goodwill White Paper

Posted on by Devin

Release of the Sea of Goodwill White Paper:  Building the Bridge to Help Veterans & Their Families

Creating and sustaining a long-term solution for better transitional support of veterans and their families as they return to civilian life requires participation and support of organizations and government at both the national and local levels.  Authored by Colonel David W. Sutherland, USA and Major John W. Copeland, USA, the Sea of Goodwill: Matching the Donor to the Need white paper seeks to foster this discussion.

The white paper focuses on three key elements in helping veterans and their families reintegrate into civilian society: education, access to health care for life, and employment. While these needs are simple, delivering the right service at the right time and place across more than 400,000 estimated service organizations is more complex.

Read the white paper.  Share it with your friends.  Tell us what you think.

To read the full Sea of Goodwill: Matching the Donor to the Need, click here to get the PDF.


Veterans Reintegration

Veterans Are Civic Assets

Posted on by Devin

This week, we’re happy to introduce a new guest blogger: Mary Yonkman, Chief of Staff at Civic Enterprises, co-author of All Volunteer Force, and military spouse.  Mary provides practical guidance on how every community can better harness the skills and commitment to service of returning veterans to meet the needs in local communities.

Here’s an impressive statistic to consider – 92 % of OEF/OIF veterans believe serving their community is important. Better yet, the issues they want to address have a profound impact on our nation at every level:  the high school dropout crisis, the environment, disaster relief, wounded veterans and military families, and poverty. The best welcome we can give this generation of veterans is to recognize that they are civic assets, not charity cases, to the communities which they call home.

But despite their willingness to serve in their community, veterans often aren’t aware of local needs or ongoing programs that they can support. Here are simple and practical ways you can help veterans connect with the people and organizations that need them most:

If you are a nonprofit:

  •  Proactively encourage this generation of veterans to serve within your organization.
  • As you identify volunteer or national service needs, consider the immense skill sets of this generation of veterans, and how you can engage them, and their families, to meet critical needs in your community.
  • Form partnerships with active duty military installations, veterans service organizations, and local veteran leaders.

If you are a military family or veteran service organization:

  • Make concerted efforts to ensure veterans, military families, and service members are aware of the diverse opportunities to serve in your community.
  • Connect them to nonprofits like Hands on Network, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
  • By taking the time to understand the type of volunteer opportunities they are looking for and where their skills would be most useful, you can better match them with a local organization they might not otherwise know about.

If you are a citizen in the community:

  • Ask a veteran or service member to serve alongside you.
  • Take them to a Habitat build with your family. Invite them to mentor at a local high school. Connect them to nonprofit and service sector job opportunities.
  • Take time to learn about the skill sets they gained in the military and affirm that those skills can have such an impact on the community you share.

Mary Yonkman is the Chief of Staff at Civic Enterprises and co-author of All Volunteer Force (link:http://www.civicenterprises.net/allvolunteerforce). In October, she will begin as Chief Strategy Officer at The Mission Continues (http://www.missioncontinues.org/)

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Gateway Guide: Your Search Results Jumped in Number? It isn’t Magic, it’s a Feature!

Posted on by Devin

At the Warrior Gateway, we’re committed to making our Web portal as easy to use as possible.  That’s why we’re launching a new series of updates that highlight capabilities and features, answer community questions, and help you get the most out of our ever-growing Directory and our site as a whole.

This week we are highlighting an interesting element of the Directory’s search technology – it automatically expands your search. 

Let’s say you searched for “mental health providers” in “Washington, DC”.  After you enter your search term, you’ll see a map overlaid with the first 19 results for that search (as in image 1).  However, the Directory contains more entries than these initial 19. 

Image 1

As you move to page 2 under “Go to page”, you will notice that the total number of results increase (Image 2).  The map has also expanded, allowing you to view a larger geographic area.  Don’t worry, nothing’s broken! 

Image 2

The Directory automatically increases the search radius as you progress through the search. 

In our example, the first page search results (Image 1) are the service providers closest to the center point of the location searched, which in this case was Washington, DC.  As you go to the second page, you are able to view service providers across an expanded radius (Image 2). 

So the next time you run a search and don’t find what you’re looking for on the first page, try going to the next page.  You’ll notice an increased number of results and be able to filter through the expanded list.

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May is Mental Health Month

Posted on by Chris

May is National Mental Health Month. This is a month for us to reflect on the impact and prevalence of mental health issues. It’s a month to speak openly and freely about issues which are common, but commonly stigmatized.

Which is why this month the Warrior Gateway will be posting a series of resources, stories, and other information related to mental health and the military community. Stay posted for more!

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For the Veteran, By a Veteran

Posted on by Chris

Minnesota NPR has a good story on Michael Mills, a member of the Minnesota National Guard who has become a local voice for the issues faced by returning OEF/OIF veterans. Mills served in Iraq, where his convoy was struck by a roadside bomb, causing him to sustain several broken bones and third degree burns on much of his body. He came back angry and depressed, but eventually came to terms with his experiences through the help of his family and a psychiatrist.

Michael Mills (right) poses with fellow veterans Jeff Butler and Bruce Billington. Photo courtesy of MPR

Michael Mills (right) poses with fellow veterans Jeff Butler and Bruce Billington. Photo courtesy of MPR

And now he’s seeking to help other veterans going through issues similar to his own. He runs a website called For the Veteran, By a Veteran, which tells his story and provides some resources for medically discharged veterans.

“I started For the Veteran for a couple of reasons but the main reason is I got tired of losing my friends to suicide,” said Mills, who fears that many vets are killing themselves because they first turn to drugs and alcohol.

Because many veterans may be ashamed to ask for help, for a Veteran aims to inform them about available government and private services.

Mills also sits on the board of Project New Hope, an organization which holds retreats for members of the military community, covering topics like money management, navigating VA resources, and anger management. The program is unique in its inclusion of a veteran’s entire family. “The VA is only able to help the soldier,” said Bruce Billington of Cross Lake, who founded Project New Hope. “We help the entire family. We try to provide resources that the VA is unable to give.” Project New Hope began in Minnesota but now hosts retreats in New York, Wisconsin, and even Canada, in addition to several locations in Minnesota.

“When I first joined the military and before me and even up till now, you’re told, ‘if you’re not bleeding, you’re not hurt,’ ” Mills said. “And that’s not really true because there is pain without the blood. There is mental pain, especially being in a combat zone.”