MILITARY VETERANS RESOURCE CENTER

We began operation as an employment services agency for veterans, but soon recognized the barriers that were impeding the progress of veterans toward their career goals - physical/mental injuries, family problems, PTSD, financial or transportation issues, etc. We shifted our focus to help veterans identify and overcome the barriers to their career success and continued evolving to focus on helping veterans regain self-reliance and independence.

Our goal is to serve a minimum of 1,500 veterans each year, with a minimum placement rate of 20 percent. We also expect to provide a minimum of 20,000 meals to veterans each year through our food bank and provide at least 2,400 units of additional assistance.

We want veterans to be self-reliant - to have the strength and knowledge to take control of their lives. We provide coaches will be the veterans' "battle buddies" but we want the veteran to personally (1) identify the barriers to his/her success, (2) identify the resources needed to overcome the barriers and (3) access those resources.

We can't provide services if we can't meet with veterans. We facilitate this by
1. Going to where the veterans are - the VA, veterans service commissions, veterans posts, public labor exchanges, etc.
2. Providing reasons for veterans to come to our centers by providing workshops, classes and other activities that veterans have asked us to provide.
3. Reaching out to veterans through social media and event sponsorship.

Strengths
1. Annual income from donations of about $1 million.
2. We understand veterans because we are veterans.
3. We have the technical knowledge. Our staff has over 75 years experience in the workforce development arena.
4. We have close working relationships with other veterans service organizations.
5. We have close working relationships with social service agencies such as Volunteers of America, Goodwill and the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.
6. We have close working relationships with employers and employer organizations.

Future expected strengths
1. We are a member of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, which would ensure we have adequate food supplies to meet the needs of our veteran community.
2. We provide employment and housing assistance for homeless and formerly incarcerated veterans.
2. We provide constant training for our coaches to improve their ability to communicate with and guide veterans during their transitions.

1. Over the past five years, we have enrolled between 1,000 and 1,800 new veterans each year. Since we began operations in 2000, we have served over 15,000 veterans.
2. For the past five years, we have had an average placement of over 250 each year.
3. The average wage at placement is about $17 per hour.
3. We currently average over fiive tons of food deliveries each month to veterans and their families.

Challenges
Our greatest challenge is getting younger vets to accept our services. The average age of the veterans we have served is about 45. Like many other veterans organizations, we have had difficulty at times in reaching younger veterans. We have responded by reaching out to families and providing service specifically for younger families - such as gift cards for school supplies and tickets to concerts that are popular with young veterans.