Military Warriors Support Foundation

Military Warriors Support Foundation provides programs to our nation's combat wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses surrounding the three principles of Home, Wealth and Health. Our largest endeavor is to provide shelter to our combat wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses. On any given night, there are more than 40,000 homeless veterans living on the streets, most of whom were not ready to transition to civilian life. In conjunction with our partners, we can provide apartments and homes that are rent and mortgage-free, ensuring that the veteran and their family has a safe, reliable and consistent place to call home. These homes relieve them of their biggest financial strain and reduces the stress associated with ensuring they have a proper place to live. Eliminating the cost for shelter allows them to focus on other financial and personal matters.

The cornerstone to all our programs is the financial and family mentoring that we require of each participant in our programs. The mentoring lasts between 1-3 years depending on the program. Over 63% of our applicants entered the military prior to age 21, with their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and a job being provided to them. Now that they are out of the military and must provide those essential needs for themselves, understanding the basic concepts of money management, saving and investing are important to their transition. Each participant is assigned a mentor that teaches or re-instills the basic concepts, monthly, so the practices become habits, like how they learned in the military. In addition, the mentor can provide guidance and referrals so their transition to homeownership or living on their own will be a successful journey.

Lastly, we understand the importance of mental well-being and how important that can be for a successful transition. While in the military, members develop a tight-knit bond, relying on each other for potential survival. Upon leaving the military, it is very difficult to replace that bond, comradery and shared experiences. To assist our veterans, we provide recreational outings (hunting, fishing, golf and other outdoor activities) that bring veterans together in a relaxed environment to participate in some of the hobbies or sports they once enjoyed, but may no longer be participating in. These outings are all lead by former military members, many of which are wounded themselves, and allows the participants to re-engage in that comradery and competition they once thrived on while in the military. This peer to peer mentoring becomes invaluable as new friendships are formed and they realize they are not the only one going through a difficult time.

In addition, we payment-free vehicles to heroes who are either without transportation, or are unable to transport themselves, due to their injuries. This allows many heroes and their families easier access to doctor's appointments, grocery shopping and recreation.

Over the last 15 years, we built partnerships with several financial institutions and donors to provide our programs. Our financial partners continue to provide us with an inventory of homes that we make available to the veterans or Gold Star spouses. We review our applicant pool to determine the highest areas of interest and then work with our financial partners to meet the needs of those concentrated areas. However, we will review all potential homes, regardless of concentration, to determine if we can fulfill a veteran's needs in that location.
Over 80% of our applicants have children, so every home that is offered to us is fully vetted to ensure that we are placing the veteran and his/her family into a sound, stable and reliable home that they can prosper in. We review the neighborhoods for schools, medical facilities, transportation, crime and recreational opportunities to determine if our family can thrive in the home based on their current situation. That same level of detail is also undertaken when we are identifying apartment complexes for the veterans who are not ready for long term homeownership.

Our commitment to the veterans and their families doesn't stop upon providing them a home, apartment, vehicle or recreational outing. In fact, that is just the beginning of our relationship. With the advice of military doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, all our programs are centered around family and financial mentoring. In addition to receiving a home or vehicle, the veteran, Gold Star spouse or family are required to participate in a 1-3-year mentoring program before “graduating" from our programs. These individuals are accustomed to routines and repetitions that become daily habits that they carry forward throughout their life. Our family and financial mentoring program offers those same principles by meeting with our families monthly to establish financial goals and progress towards meeting them, critiquing their current financial activity and providing education on a variety of financial topics to help them in the future. By meeting regularly, the mentor develops a rapport with the family and often becomes their primary source for identifying local resources and general knowledge on a variety of topics.

Military Warriors Support Foundation (MWSF) has partnered with several of the largest financial institutions and builders to provide almost 900 homes to combat wounded veterans and surviving spouses of fallen heroes (Gold Stars) since 2010. In collaboration with multiple partners and resources, MWSF works to ensure the homes are renovated to move-in ready condition for recipient families.

In addition to bank partners and long-standing sponsors, we have also partnered with a nationwide property renovation company since our inception. Most homes we receive will require some form of renovation work before it is ready to be awarded. Our property renovation partner is very adept at inspecting the properties and providing accurate estimates on the repairs that will need to be completed. Armed with that consistent and thorough information, MWSF is able to make the best decision on whether or not each home will be a good fit for the program and our Heroes. This long-term partnership has provided us the ability to work on homes throughout the country with the same high-quality workmanship provided to each home.

Our cornerstone Financial and Family mentoring program has been so successful with our housing programs, that we have now included it with our transportation program as well. The ability to provide our veterans, many of whom are in their 20's and early 30's, the opportunity to learn sound financial habits and develop a method for reducing debt, can be a life changing experience for them. We have mentors situated across the country that meet with veterans every month to educate and ensure that they are staying on track with their personal and financial goals. The consistent contact and review helps turn those concepts into habits that can be carried forward to future generations.

Since 2010, Military Warriors Support Foundation (MWSF) has been awarding mortgage-free homes to combat wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses of fallen heroes through generous donations from partners, sponsors and the public. To date, we have been able to change the lives of almost 900 veterans' and their families throughout all 50 states by providing them with a new home. In addition, over 1700 children now have a safe and consistent place to call home, providing them the opportunity to grow and prosper in their community. With continued support from our partners, we aim to provide up to 50 homes each year.

Our Financial and Family mentoring program is setting these new homeowners down a path for success by teaching them financial skills and components to make informed decisions related to their finances. Through hard work and dedication, our program participants have been able to reduce their outstanding debt by $24 million, while also improving their credit score by an average of 40 points.

Our recreation program, Skills4Life, continues to provide fishing, hunting, golfing and outdoor opportunities to over 300 participants each year. These events allow our participants to engage in sporting activities and rekindle that competitive fire with fellow servicemen in friendly competitions. All events are run by former military members, which allows the participants to receive peer to peer mentoring and share stories of failure and success in their own civilian transitions.

Due to changes in the housing market, our partners have limited inventories through which they provide donated homes. To continue to meet the housing needs of our nation's heroes, MWSF is continuing to obtain assets through creative building and purchase models.

Lastly, we will look to grow our current Transportation program. We have awarded over 130 new, payment-free vehicles to deserving veterans. We look to increase our partnerships with car dealers to deliver more vehicles, empowering our heroes to explore new opportunities like further education, or just to simplify day-to-day tasks of going to work or attending medical appointments.