Facing into the Truth

Becky Kanis is being honored as a Champion of Change for her efforts as a woman veteran.

One of the most difficult decisions I ever made was to resign my commission from the United States Army. After graduating from West Point and serving for nine years, I reached a point where I was unwilling to deceive my colleagues about my sexual orientation for another day. This was well before President Obama had been elected or signed the law ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” At the time, the Army had posters about its values hanging in almost every hallway. My own former First Sergeant was featured on an Army poster about integrity, a value that depends on facing into the truth and being honest with yourself and others. I shared that value with the military, and eventually, my commitment to integrity left me with no ethical choice but to resign— a choice I made with anger and sadness.

Eight years after I left the Army, I was asked to be the founding board chair of Knights Out, a group of LGBT West Point alumni committed to being honest about who they were and who they loved. I remember my response vividly: “only if we’re really going to do something about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – I don’t want to lead a social club!” Thankfully, my fellow West Point grads were serious about making change; the time had come for the military and all of us to live up to the integrity we professed to value. I still remember our first meeting, in which Lieutenant Dan Choi offered to be our public spokesperson in spite of warnings that it might cost him his commission (It eventually did). I also remember asking my dear old friend, Sue Fulton, to join our board. Sue went on to become the first openly gay woman appointed (by President Obama) to the Board of Trustees at West Point and the first LGBT person to be married in the school’s Cadet Chapel. Together, we and other advocates claimed a front row seat to the demise of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell because we were willing to face into the truth and be honest about who we were and what we believed.

After resigning my commission from the Army, I eventually found my way to Rosanne Haggerty, a brilliant pioneer who has now been my boss, mentor, and friend for over ten years. Rosanne challenged me to join her team and lead an effort to reduce street homelessness in Times Square by two-thirds in three years. Together, we faced the hard truth that existing approaches to ending homelessness weren’t working. To make a real impact, we would have to be willing to abandon age-old assumptions and start from scratch. Over four years, we built a brand new street outreach model that brought street homelessness in the area down by nearly ninety percent and forever changed the way New York City responds to homelessness.

Fast forward to 2013. Today, our original work in Times Square has become the blueprint for the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a national movement of 189 communities across the country working together to permanently house 100,000 of the most vulnerable homeless people in America by July 2014. I am privileged to direct this nationwide effort, which has already seen participating communities find permanent homes for 37,000 people, including over 13,000 veterans. My team and I have built the Campaign around a shared commitment to facing into the truth, however challenging it may feel at times. We have gathered and analyzed reams of data to help communities track their progress and improve their housing systems. We have helped volunteers survey more than 42,000 homeless Americans to figure out exactly who is sleeping on the streets in their communities – by name and photograph – and what it will take to get each of them into housing. We are resolute in our belief that complex social problems demand a sometimes frightening degree of honesty: difficult facts must be faced head on and traditional assumptions must be subjected to scrutiny and possible reinvention.

Today, despite the nearly ubiquitous rhetoric on “ending homelessness,” only 28 communities in the US are actually on track to meet the federal goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2015. Even so, I am confident that this goal remains soundly within reach. My team and I are scrambling to figure out what the most successful communities are doing that others can replicate, but meanwhile, integrity demands that we acknowledge the long distance we have to travel and work doubly hard to catalyze major change in communities across the country. As we do so, we are guided by a process that we’ve adopted from the Hendricks Institute for facing into the hard truths we may encounter: F.A.C.T., which stands for Face, Accept, Choose, and Take Action. First, Face into whatever it is that you’re not facing. What are the hard realities you’re avoiding or the difficult facts you’d rather not see? Next, Accept. What is it that you have resisted or refused to accept about these truths? Then, Choose. What are you really aiming for, and what outcome do you actually want? And finally, Take action. In light of the truths you faced in step 1, identify one small, pleasurable step you can take toward your clarified goals.

Facing into the truth is the key to social change and a regular habit of every successful problem solving effort. My wife and I believe this so passionately that we recently formed an organization called the Social Change Agency to help non-profit leaders adopt it. A better world is well within our grasp, and facing into the truth will help us get there if we are willing to do so.

Becky Kanis is the Director of the 100,000 Homes Campaign for Community Solutions and a co-founder of The Social Change Agency.

"Never Leave A Place The Way You Found It.”

Priscilla Mondt is being honored as a Champion of Change for her efforts as a woman veteran.

An old adage says, “God loves us too much to leave us the way we are.” I was taught early in my military career to “never walk by a mistake” and “never leave a place the way you found it.” Change does not happen in a vacuum; it usually requires the support of others both to empower and carry through the vision. One may have many ideas but these fall flat without others to embrace and execute them. In my work at the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, Arkansas, there is a strong commitment to meeting the needs of the 55,000 Veterans and families served across three states. The paradigm shift for spiritual care, one-third of the holistic healthcare concept, was empowered by the leadership and implemented by a strong Chaplain Service team.

The term “spiritual care” has a broader definition than religion; it is “whatever gives a person meaning and purpose in life.” The need for spiritual interventions is especially realized during times of crisis and war. Chaplains attend to the wounds of the soul, those not visible to the human eye. I lead a team of strong spiritual leaders unusually gifted in abilities to assess and address needs of our country’s warriors. Physical and emotional needs are intertwined with spirituality and this group shifted the culture to a proactive stance to address needs of all Veteran populations served by our facility. Like shining light into darkness, when one area was addressed, it became obvious that another area needed attention. The expansion of spiritual care was patient-focused and guided by assessments and requests for services that include the many VA programs targeting both inpatients and outpatients.

Technology has changed the way people interact. While some view technology as personal and enhancing accessibility, it also sometimes distances people. Personal touch and interaction are often missing. Chaplains bring the personal dimension to Veterans, listening to their heartache, doubts, and fears, and replacing these with hope and assurance. However, by leveraging technology, the chapel worship services became digitized, allowing non-ambulatory inpatients to participate via close circuit television. This facility Chaplain Service became the first to field secure messaging, allowing electronic confidentiality between patient and chaplain. Tele-health capabilities and other such technological venues closed the gap on spiritual care services to Veterans outside the walls of the hospital.

Having served in the military during the transition from the Women’s Army Corps to integration into the Regular Army, I am committed to investment in the next generation of female leaders. This is reflected in two scholarships dedicated to inspiring women toward leadership and service. The Hazel Marsh Mondt Scholarship, named for my mother who was a World War II Veteran, is awarded annually to an Assemblies of God Theological Seminary female seminarian in pursuit of either military or Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy. The Priscilla Mondt Leadership Scholarship is awarded annually at Native American Bible College to a female or Veteran college student who demonstrates leadership. I am currently President of the Northwest Arkansas Chaplain Alliance (includes hospital, hospice, corporate, industrial, fire and police chaplains), working to promote change across many communities.

Drill sergeants intrigue me. They possess remarkable capabilities to quickly assess a raw recruit, motivate them appropriately and produce soldiers who will fight and defend our nation. Chaplains see similar transformations in the lives of Veterans as they invest in holistic care of our nation’s warriors. Wherever you are placed, your investment in the lives of others builds a stronger nation.

Chaplain Priscilla Mondt serves as Chief of Chaplain Service at Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Honor, Courage, and Commitment

Glenna Tinney is being honored as a Champion of Change for her efforts as a woman veteran.

I am honored to be selected as a White House Champion of Change. I am humbled to be in the company of fourteen other extraordinary women veterans with amazing stories of courage, sacrifice, resilience, healing, recovery, hope, and service.

My journey began when I was born an Army brat at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. My father entered the Army in the enlisted ranks and, twenty years later, retired as a Major, so he had a very successful military career. He deployed to Korea for two tours during the Korean Conflict when I was very young. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized my father struggled with his combat experiences for the rest of his life. I understand now that he had undiagnosed and untreated combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression that he self-medicated with alcohol. I realize that he was plagued with survivor’s guilt for the men he lost while fighting in Korea. He never recovered from these experiences.

I am a retired Navy Captain. In 1980, I was one of the original twelve Navy social workers ever recruited for active duty. I spent 24 years in the Navy as a social worker. I had various duty stations in the continental United States and outside of the U.S., and traveled to military installations worldwide. I managed worldwide family violence and sexual assault programs. I served as the Deputy Executive Director for the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence. We issued extensive recommendations to Congress and the Secretary of Defense to improve policies, procedures, and practices for handling domestic violence throughout the Department of Defense. After completion of the Task Force work, I worked on implementation of the Task Force recommendations. I retired in 2004, which was in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

I am also an activist and a victim advocate who has worked for nearly four decades to end violence against women. This work began back in the mid-1970s, when I was a newly graduated Master of Social Work (MSW) who wanted to change the world. I worked at a community mental health center and became involved in setting up the first battered women’s shelter and first rape crisis center in our community. This work established the foundation for my entire career. My mission has been and continues to be one of advocacy for and service to the vulnerable and disenfranchised in our society.

I bring all of these experiences and perspectives to the work I do now as the Military Advocacy Program Coordinator for the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP), a national technical assistance provider for the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). BWJP promotes change within the civil and criminal justice systems to improve their response to domestic violence and more effectively provide safety and justice to domestic violence survivors and their families. I also bring these perspectives to my role on the Advisory Council for the Business and Professional Women’s Joining Forces for Women Veterans Mentorship Program to assist women veterans in obtaining meaningful employment and a successful career of interest to them.

I manage the Building Effective Civilian Responses to Military-Related Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Project that is funded by OVW with Violence Against Women Act funds. I am responsible for developing a model coordinated-community-response to co-occurring incidents of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and intimate partner violence. This model addresses screening, assessment, and intervention for intimate partner violence and co-occurring conditions. I provide training to increase the capacity for military and civilian victim advocates, attorneys, and other providers to address the unique needs of military-related victims and offenders, and understand the challenges of advocating in these cases. An e-learning course I developed, Safety at Home – Intimate Partner Violence, Military Personnel, and Veterans, addresses the military and veteran infrastructures and resources for addressing intimate partner violence, the context of violence, risk and danger, combat stress, and the intersection of combat-related co-occurring conditions and intimate partner violence. I have established two national listservs to promote networking and information sharing between military and civilian subject matter experts and those working with the military-related population to enhance the quality of services for military personnel, veterans, and their families. I engage in the national dialogue to influence legal, military, veteran, and public policy developments nationwide that affect civil and criminal justice responses to intimate partner violence involving military personnel, veterans, and their families. This involves collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders from the military, veteran, and civilian communities to ensure coordination of efforts and successful implementation of best practices in addressing intimate partner violence involving military personnel, veterans, and their families.

Are veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) different from my father? Not really. Most people who return from combat have some problems with reintegration and experience some combat stress reactions (e.g., bad dreams and nightmares, sleep disturbance, short temper, anger and rage, increased drinking and drug use) when they first return, but do not necessarily go on to have PTSD. Like my father, they are struggling with their combat experiences. They too have children who are growing up impacted by a parent who is impaired. Like my father, many of these veterans do not seek help and are trying to cope with their issues by themselves. They and their families are going through hell as they too try to work, raise families, and live some semblance of a normal life while continuing to experience the aftermath of their combat experiences. Some of these veterans are depressed and contemplate, threaten, or attempt suicide. Some are becoming involved with the criminal justice system for a range of crimes, including drug offenses, driving under the influence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, murder, etc. They are accountable for their behavior, and it is never acceptable to abuse their intimate partners and children.

People who have been in combat are changed forever by that experience, as are their families. We cannot totally understand what they have been through even if they do talk to us about it, but we can be there to love and support them, hold them accountable for their behavior, help them get the assistance they need, and let them know that they are not alone.

I want to thank all of the amazing people who have been part of my journey. My family and friends have always been there for me even when I was traveling all over the world. I want to thank all of the dedicated and courageous people with whom I have worked over the years who are committed to ending violence against women. To military personnel, veterans, and their families, I want to thank you for your service, and I want to thank all of the people who support and care for our military personnel, veterans, and their families. Whether or not you have any connection to the military, I encourage you to learn more about how ten years of war have impacted our military personnel, veterans, and their families, and find a way to show your appreciation for the huge sacrifices they have made while serving our country.

Glenna Tinney currently serves as the Military Advocacy Program Coordinator for the Battered Women’s Justice Project.