An Opportunity to Give Back

Today's blog is from Vicki Lane, Regional Clinicial Social Worker.  Vicki shares with us today why she works for Hope For The Warriors®. 

 

I have been a military spouse for over 32 years and when I began my career as a clinical social worker I knew this was the population I wanted to serve.  The military community has given much to my family and me over the years—I wanted a way to give back.

Hope For The Warriors® has given me just such an opportunity.  Through my position as Regional Clinical Social Worker I feel I am able to meet the stated mission of Hope For The Warrior®:   to restore a sense of self, restore the family unit, and restore hope for our physically and psychologically wounded service men and women, veterans, and their families.  It is an honor and a privilege to help these men and women navigate their way through difficult financial and psychological issues, to help them learn new ways to solve and/or cope with these issues, to offer supportive counseling, and to lend an empathetic ear.  It never ceases to amaze me how much healing takes place by simply letting them know we care enough to listen—and truly hear what they have to share.

I also find it rewarding to work along-side and mentor our Master of Social Work (MSW) interns as they grow as social workers and learn about the very real and unique culture of the military.  Many of these MSW interns plan to continue working with the military after they graduate, and Hope offers them a rare and indispensable experience.

I feel blessed to be working for an organization with a staff that not only understands the importance of caring for our Nation’s wounded, ill, and injured—but makes that caring priority number one!

Above & Beyond, Women Veterans

Hope For The Warriors® will hold its first Above & Beyond Seminar specifically for Women Veterans in Washington D.C. in January 2014. This seminar will be conducted as part of both the Education & Employment program and Women Veterans Initiative.

The Above & Beyond Program provides the professional tools and one-on-one guidance for wounded service members to transfer their military skills into the civilian workplace. Participants will develop a personal and professional plan customized to individual needs and interests. These plans may encompass both life and career goals and may include continuing education, employment opportunities and business development.

For the upcoming seminar, Hope For The Warriors® is seeking the following:

·         Women veteran participants

·         Human Resource Experts to present on job-related topics, critique resumes and more

·         Volunteer support for assistance with set up and more

·         Donated space to hold seminar; Georgetown area and surrounding locations preferred

·         General donations and sponsorship to fund meals, lodging, travel, etc.

 

If you are a woman veteran interested in participating in the Above & Beyond Seminar, please contact Connie Morinello, cmorinello@hopeforthewarriors.org

Sponsors, donors and volunteers interested in contributing to this event, please contact Lorie Coker, lcoker@hopeforthewarriors.org.

Why Military Social Work?

Today's blog was written by Brianne, one of our wonderful social work interns.  We would not be able to help nearly as many families each month without the dedication of our interns.

 

I could bore you with my backstory and the long journey that brought me to Social Work, but I will keep it simple. Social work has always been an interest of mine and as I grew older I felt more passionate about pursuing my interest. The choice for me to pursue social work became easier for many personal reasons. My first career as a Marine wife and mother was what pushed me more specifically to military social work.

 

As a young wife and young mother I faced adversity and challenges that many of my peers could not understand or imagine. A lot of these challenges came from the differences I saw in my husband as he returned from his second deployment to Iraq and we were finally able to be a family. My husband and I grew up together and therefore know each other very well, so seeing the changes that occurred when he came home confused me. The main reason for this was because in his earlier career Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was not talked about often and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) was not a term I had even heard. But yet there was something different and I could not quite put my finger on it. I sat by and watched as he struggled with simple tasks, grew frustrated over insignificant events, and did not laugh nearly as much as he had in the past. It was these invisible wounds that broke my heart and reinforced my passion that I needed to be in a career that I could help people.

 

The people I wanted to help were the ones that have sacrificed so much for this country. Patriotism has an entirely new definition to me now because I did not grow up with a military background neither did my husband. Yet these brave men and women put so much on the line to do the jobs they signed up for and they should never have to suffer in silence. Working with the military feels like a true calling and I could not be prouder to have the opportunity to serve the men and women who have endured so much.

Inducted into Chi Zeta, honor society for social workers

 

 

Why Hope For The Warriors®?

Hope For The Warriors® was an easy choice for me. The program I attend at East Carolina University coordinates all of the internships for the social work program. I did not have much say in my first placement and knew that my passion was working with military. I used all of my research and presentation opportunities to educate my peers and professors about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the needs of the military. While I was thinking about my second (and final) placement before I graduated I knew I had to advocate for myself to get the placement I truly wanted. Researching different organizations and opportunities led me to a newspaper article announcing the hiring of a Regional Social Worker for Hope For The Warriors®. This sparked my interest in the organization. As a social worker we are trained and taught to focus on a Biopsychosocial approach to all issues. To me this is evident in military work. Not only do you have to consider biological factors (body chemistry, ailments, and disabilities), but you also have to consider the psychological factors (mental illness, traumatic experiences, perceptions, and attitudes) and the social factors (community, support systems, family, and friends) to address a problem effectively. Military having its own culture really puts into action the importance of the roles all three factors play. Hope For The Warriors® was the only organization I came across that proudly announced the employment of a Regional Social Worker! After my orientation and my first few weeks within the organization I was able to see an even clearer picture of the ideas and objectives behind the organization. I knew that I made the right choice advocating to work with Hope For The Warriors®.

Read about our program with MSW@USC

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A Letter from Pine Knoll Shores, Town Manager

Recently we shared with our supporters that we had once again earned a Top Rating from Greatnonprofits.  (Read here.)  Not long after, we received a wonderful email from Brian Kramer, supporter and the town manager of Pine Knoll Shores, NC.  Pine Knoll Shores has supported Hope For The Warriors® with several annual events and the people of the community continue to embrace our service members, families and our organization.  If you live in that area, we highly recommend that you join us for one of their events.

Below is Brian's wonderful letter.  Thank you to Brian and to all of Pine Knoll Shores for their support.

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Pine Knoll Shores and friends of people connected to Pine Knoll Shores have been supporting Hope For The Warriors® (H4W) now since 2008.  It is a great organization, and I witnessed it grow from its infancy. 

It had its roots right down the road at Camp Lejeune.  Wounded men and women were coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and staying in their empty barracks----their buddies and their leaders were still deployed.  The Commanding General (CG) recognized this as a problem.  How to get them to medical appointments, how to manage meds, how to ensure the rehab is accomplished properly, and perhaps most importantly, how to make them still fell like Marines and part of a cohesive unit-----all of this was a major problem starting in about 2003.

Another catalyst was a visit from one Marine to the same CG.  He was a LtCol who was severely injured in Afghanistan.  He returned to the US, and he and his spouse started to negotiate the medical and support system to address his needs.  They found this task so daunting that this officer approached the CG and said, in so many words, “I’m a LtCol and I can’t figure this stuff out…….how is a Lance Corporal supposed to do it?”  I personally know him.  He is a great man.

From this grew the Wounded Warrior Barracks at Camp Lejeune, where the injured men and women were together, supervised, and rehabbed.  The Marines now had a means to get to medical appointments, had Docs supervising their rehab, and a Gunny to make them shave and occasionally kick them in their rear end.  The Secretary of Defense was impressed enough that he visited Lejeune and said that everyone else needs to do this.  Today, the Marine Corps and the Army now have actual flagged units for wounded servicemen/women. 

Also from this grew H4W, which started out as a group of Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard spouses, all volunteers and almost all of whom did not have a wounded spouse but had husbands on active duty.  One of the first things they did was organize a simple foot race on board Lejeune.  I attended this very first event……it was smaller in scope and scale than our present Kayak Race here in Pine Knoll Shores.  They starting doing more and more, and today the H4W is a national organization that does simply incredible things for the wounded.  And they don’t forget these guys/gals when they leave active duty.  Last year I attended a H4W dinner.  Many wounded vets from Iraq and Afghanistan were there.  I noticed that many were not youngsters anymore.  Some had beards, some had lost their 30-inch waist, and others had other signs of approaching middle age.  But they were still in wheel chairs, still using canes, and still wearing their prosthetics.

I think PKS will continue to support H4W so we can say that we are the generation that took care of these guys/gals for the long haul.  We want these people to go home back to their home states, go to school, get married, have kids, and be a productive part of society.  In my mind, H4W is a natural extension of what I saw started ten years ago with a handful of wounded kids who we moved into a barracks so they could still feel like Marines.  Today H4W wants these vets and their families to still feel like they are part of everyday America.

When any of us donate to charity we always want to know if the funds are being used for what we think they are.  One of the ways we can do this is by analyzing our charities through a well-established charity  evaluation group.  See below to see how H4W fared with one of the main evaluation organizations, GreatNonprofits.  H4W is an absolutely first-class organization. 

And don’t forget: The 7th Annual Kayak for the Warriors: Saturday, June 7, 2014.

VR

Brian Kramer

Town Manager, Pine Knoll Shores

 

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Above & Beyond, San Diego

 

A few weeks ago, Hope For The Warriors® held another successful Above & Beyond Conference in San Diego, California. The Above & Beyond Program provides guidance to wounded service members pursuing reintegration into the civilian sector. This Program is also extended to family members of wounded service members. The objective is to explore "next step" options for those interested in a civilian or military career, higher education/advanced training, or a small business startup.

Hope For The Warriors® extends a special thanks to CACI for donating the venue, offering incredible administrative support, and volunteers to assist our service members with resume writing and interviewing skills.  We are very grateful for all of their support and could not have had a successful week without them!

We would also like to say thank you to Studio Diner who supplied lunch for entire group on Friday!

One staff member, Sarah Duerr shared, “I recently left teaching after ten amazing years, and many people said that I would never find a more rewarding career.  I say step into an Above & Beyond Conference and meet some of our service members and you’d see why I couldn’t disagree more!  Thank you for such an amazing experience. We know all of you have such bright futures and we’re excited to help you continue that journey.”

Hope Cares About NY

 

Today's blog was written by Katie Levy, Social Work Intern with Hope For The Warriors®.  She is attending Touro College Graduate School of Social Work and his a fellow in the school's military social work program.  Through her internship, she has supported our mission by working with service members and veterans in the New York City area.

This past Saturday, October 19, Hope For The Warriors® hosted our first event for the Women Veterans Initiative as part of New York Cares Day.  The Women Veterans Initiative was created to develop programs specifically for servicewomen that honor their unique experiences, strengths, challenges, and camaraderie.  Our goal is to enhance Women Veterans’ professional development, provide specialized critical care, team build in local communities, promote health and wellness and provide communities with education and resources concerning relevant issues facing Women Veterans.

 

Female Service Members, Veterans, and Hope staff joined together to participate in New York City’s largest hands-on volunteer day.  Each fall, thousands of volunteers work with New York Cares to ensure that our city’s public schools are a clean, safe, and nurturing environments for our children.   

We spent the day brightening Bronx public school PS 50X Clara Barton.  Early this year, the school was notified it was one of the 22 schools voted by the Department of Education to “phase out.”  No new students were admitted in September, and the doors will close for good in June 2016.  Phase out schools aren’t a priority for public funds, but Clara Barton was in need of a little brightening.  We spent the day getting to know the school’s staff while painting murals and getting our hands dirty in the community garden. 

Active Duty, Reserve, and retired Service Members came together from different military branches to engage in community work.  They all had different experiences but shared commonalities: a commitment to service, a desire for community and connection with others who already “understand the acronyms” civilians may not.  After only a few short hours in each other’s company, team members were discussing unique experiences of women in the military, pearls of wisdom, and words of comfort.  I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know these amazing women who generously accepted me into their sisterhood for the day.  I’ve never seen an immediate level of intimacy achieved in such a short amount of time, and it was really moving to experience.   

Thanks for making our first event of the Women Veterans Initiative a great one.  We look forward to many more in the future!

 

Marine Corps Marathon 2013

Team Hope For The Warriors® is excited to once again hit the streets of Washington D.C. this Sunday for the 38th Annual Marine Corps Marathon.  As in past years, we will have both wounded service members cycling and running as well as community Team members participating in this inspiring marathon.

This year is even more special because it almost didn't happen for one of our participants. Due to his injuries, Jonathan Rose uses a recumbent bike, not a handcycle.  (In the above photo, you can see Jonathan on his recumbent bike, followed by Keith who is using a handcycle.)  Because of a change in insurance policy, Jonathan and other warriors who utilize recumbent bikes were told that they could not participate this year.  Fortunately, marathon organizers realized that as a race that honors the service and sacrifice of our military, they needed to make whatever changes were necessary to allow our wounded service members to be a part of this event.  Jonathan, a Marine who is already a two-time Marine Corps Marathon finisher, did not want to miss this event.

Of course, for a few days, everyone was worried that the entire marathon would be canceled due to the government shutdown.  Fortunately, that did not happen and on October 17, the Facebook page posted this photo:

 



If you are in the area, please be sure to cheer our Team members on.  Semper Fi!

Learn more about Team Hope For The Warriors®

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