Joining Forces Blog

Exploring What Works to Reduce Veteran Unemployment

Posted by Royse Cloud on September 29, 2011 at 12:23 PM EDT

Last week, we shared highlights from our visit to Norfolk, Virginia. This week, as part of our continuing efforts to make sure the Veterans Employment Initiative Task Force is as effective as possible, my team and I travelled to San Diego, California. As with our visit to Norfolk, we were looking for opportunities to explore the important work being done for veterans in that city and to identify opportunities to replicate these collaborative partnerships in other parts of our nation with the ultimate goal of providing our military, veterans and their families the support that they have earned.

On the first day of our two day trip, our team met with several groups and organizations that are doing great work across two main focus areas: Workforce Development/Transition and Mental Health/Risk Reduction. Our first stop was the Fleet and Family Support Center at the San Diego Naval Base where we spent a few hours talking with a focus group of transitioning service members under the age of 25. They shared their experiences with transition services, job seeking progress and educational opportunities that they have accessed. Hearing direct feedback enables us to accurately capture the experiences of those service members currently participating in these transition programs. We are grateful for their candor, openness, and willingness to inform the reforms that will be developed to ensure that every member of the service receives the tools necessary to successfully transition to the civilian workforce or to pursue higher education.

We spent the remainder of the day with the local One-Stop Career Center, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Balboa Hospital, and the Veterans Village of San Diego. At the local One-Stop Career Center, the team shared with us the integrated suite of services they provide to retired veterans to ensure that they are able to get educational and job counseling services. We learned about the Stand Down program in San Diego from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Stand Down is an amazing program that focuses on homeless veterans to give them direct care and services.

We have learned so much about the great work currently underway. Thank you to our wonderful hosts at San Diego!

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First Lady Michelle Obama: Joining Forces Is About Everyone Stepping Up to Give Something Meaningful Back

Posted by Colleen Curtis on September 25, 2011 at 6:00 AM EDT

First Lady Michelle Obama, along with Ty Pennington and the "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" team, watch as Barbara Summey Marshall, center, a 15-year Navy veteran,and her family get the first look at their new house in Fayetteville, N.C., July 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

This op-ed from First Lady Michelle Obama was first published in the Fayetteville Observer

A few years ago, as I began to travel around the country and talk to all sorts of people, one set of stories always tugged at my heart. They took my breath away. They inspired me. And they motivated me to learn more. They were stories of strength, courage, and patriotism that define our nation’s military families. And I know that Fayetteville is filled with them.

They’re your neighbors who raise children and manage households by themselves while their loved ones are deployed. They’re military kids who have lived most of their young lives with our nation at war and Mom or Dad overseas. They’re our wounded warriors or survivors of our fallen who continue to serve their community every day. And they’re women like Barbara Marshall.

Like so many of our veterans, Barbara’s service to this country didn’t stop when her 15-year Navy career ended. Through Steps N Stages Jubilee House, she is working to combat homelessness among female veterans in the Fayetteville area. She’s doing it in an unconventional way: by welcoming these struggling women and their families into her own home.

The Marshalls – Barbara; her son, Bert; and her daughter, Maya – are perfect examples of how much our military families give to our country each and every day. And this summer, a whole busload of people stepped up to give the Marshalls something back.

For one week in the sweltering heat, local volunteers and the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition cast and crew worked around the clock to transform Barbara’s home into a beautiful, state-of-the-art dream house and resource center. I was thrilled to help out with some of the finishing touches, and I’ll never forget the look on Barbara’s face when the bus pulled away to reveal her new home.

But what I remember most was the Fayetteville community’s warm embrace of this family and our homeless veterans. I saw neighbors grabbing shovels and picking up scraps around the worksite. I saw business owners and local organizations pitching in. Even folks around the country got involved, donating logs online to help build the beautiful cabin.

Now, I know that not every community can build a home in a week, and not every veteran will end up in Disneyland or on national T.V. But I also know that the compassion I felt in Fayetteville is alive and well in every community across this country.

That’s what compelled Dr. Jill Biden and me to launch our Joining Forces initiative this spring. This is a national initiative to address the unique needs of, and expand opportunities for, our remarkable military families.

It’s about businesses, nonprofit organizations, schools, churches, and ordinary citizens doing what they can for these incredible men, women and children. It’s about Americans uniting in service around these families. And it’s about everyone – no matter where they come from or their station in life – stepping up to give something meaningful back.

With one of our nation’s biggest media companies, local organizations, and folks from all over Fayetteville pitching in, this summer’s wild week was a perfect example of what we can accomplish when we work together for these families.

So Fayetteville, I hope you sit back and enjoy the spotlight tonight on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. You deserve it. And I hope that after the show, you’ll visit us at JoiningForces.gov to find out how you can keep showing your appreciation for our military families. Together, we can serve our military families as well as they have served us.

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Joining Forces for Our Sailors

Posted by Brad Cooper on September 23, 2011 at 5:02 PM EDT

Joining Forces is all about coming together to support our nation’s military families and one way to do that is hearing directly from military families about their experiences.

Adrienne Howard, the spouse of the Commanding Officer of a deployed Guided Missile Destroyer, shares her story of rallying her community to 'adopt' a Sailor and support deployed men and women with cards, letters and care packages:

As the spouse of the Commanding Officer of a deployed Guided Missile Destroyer, I was recently involved in the deployment preparations for our ship families. The Navy does a great job supporting the families so that they can, in turn, support their Sailors. During this time, I couldn’t help thinking: what about the guys and girls who aren’t married? What about the ones who don’t come from strong family backgrounds? Who is going to support them? Who is going to make sure they have something at mail call? Who is going to send them a Christmas card? A birthday card? The crew of the ship is largely young and unmarried, many of them doing their first deployment. Knowing how important little bits of home are to the crew, surely we could figure out a way to get little bits of home to these Sailors.

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Joining Forces with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Posted by Colleen Curtis on September 23, 2011 at 4:42 PM EDT

Watch Joining Forces with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, here.

Joining Forces is a national initiative that was established to address the unique needs of, and expand opportunities for, our remarkable military families. The town of Fayetteville, North Carolina and the crew of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, set the bar for showing support when they spent a week in the sweltering heat of July building a brand new house for Barbara Marshall, a 15-year Navy veteran who has dedicated her life to combating homelessness among female veterans.

First Lady Michelle Obama was in town to lend a hand with the finishing touches, and welcome the Marshalls into their dream home. Tune in this Sunday at 7 pm to see Mrs. Obama join the crowd chanting, "Bus driver, move this bus!"

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" featuring the Marshalls, a military family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, July 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" featuring the Marshalls, a military family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, July 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" featuring the Marshalls, a military family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, July 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

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New Commitments to Help Put our Veterans Back to Work

Posted by Brad Cooper on September 23, 2011 at 12:47 PM EDT

In August, President Obama issued a challenge to the private sector to hire or train 100,000 unemployed veterans and their spouses by the end of 2013. In just over a month, the business community has already responded with commitments to provide great opportunities for veterans and their families and help reach the President's goal. Here are some of the latest commitments from the private sector:

Microsoft will offer 10,000 technology training and certification packages to U.S. military veterans over a two year period, through a partnership with the Department of Labor. The technology training and certification will be available at intermediate and advanced levels and will be delivered through e-learning, with additional in person support. This partnership is an extension of the overall Microsoft Elevate America veteran's initiative, which demonstrates a total investment of $12 million cash, product and related support for U.S. veterans.

Siemens pledged to fill 10 percent of their 3,000 open positions with veterans earlier this year. Having exceeded that goal, Siemens has increased their commitment by an additional 50 percent. More than 450 veterans will have a new job at Siemens by the end of the year.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce will create a private sector National Veterans Employment Advisory Council (VEAC), which will be comprised of 25 of America’s biggest employers, representing every major industry and sector, to promote veteran hiring, reporting measures, and mentorship. They will also call on their federation of 2,500 state and local chambers and industry associations and more than 3 million businesses to significantly expand the scale and scope of their nationwide hiring campaign to several hundred additional cities in 2012 and beyond.

Honeywell is expanding its ongoing recruitment efforts to include a target job placement goal of at least 500 veterans in 2011 across the company’s four businesses.

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Honoring our Commitment to Provide a Plan that Lowers Veteran Unemployment

Posted by Rosye Cloud on September 22, 2011 at 6:52 PM EDT

Last month, the President announced a new task force, jointly-led by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to address veteran unemployment. The taskforce will develop reforms to ensure that every member of the service receives the training, education, and credentials they need to transition to the civilian workforce or to pursue higher education. To inform the work of this task force, this past Thursday and Friday, members of my team at the Performance Improvement Council and I travelled to the Norfolk Naval Station to learn and benchmark all the great things the men and women in Norfolk are doing to support our military, veterans, and military families.

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