GratitudeAmerica

GratitudeAmerica is a highly respected non-profit organization based in Fernandina Beach, Florida that serves post 9/11 combat veterans. We offer four-day meaningful restorative retreat programs in Florida and Georgia. Our retreats provide a supportive environment in which veterans and their support persons can connect with their peers, resource providers, alternative therapeutic modalities, and interact with licensed counselors to begin healing where needed. Our Military Support Retreats are designed on four principles: relaxation, recreation, reconnection, and restoration. The model, based on post traumatic growth, includes various activities including: nature-based recreation, yoga, breath awareness, equine therapy, kayaking, ropes courses, small group sessions, large group training, music therapy, and dolphin interactions. In many cases our retreats act as a gateway to higher levels of care.
GratitudeAmerica currently offers our retreat programs in various cities in Florida and Georgia utilizing rented facilities and contracted meals. As we plan for increased programs and retreats we have a vision to create a permanent veteran's wellness center for the Southeast United States. Plans for the retreat include: ADA handicap accessible cabins housing up to 15 dyads, staff housing for up to 12, a central meeting space, and commercial kitchen that will be utilized by over 700 wounded warriors and their support persons each year. Non-clinical therapeutic programs will provide opportunities for swimming, kayaking, hiking, biking, ropes courses, archery, a labyrinth, bonfire area, physical fitness area, and equine therapy. The founders and Board of Directors of GratitudeAmerica are working to realize their vision of providing a free, first-class retreat for America's wounded warriors and their families to find respite, relax, reconnect and recover. Our goal is to offer injured service personnel and their families a true healing retreat where they can benefit from a supportive environment and grow stronger. We will be offering optional non-clinical therapeutic and social activities designed to build confidence and hope while providing a sense of purpose.

We employ various strategies during our retreat programs to include:
Peer support “soldiers saving soldiers”
Treat the veteran-family-primary social support as a single unit
Provide resources, education, life skills and training based on empirically supported interventions
Designed around post traumatic growth
Focus heavily on supportive therapeutic interventions, not “therapy”
Used as a gateway to treatment, augment to treatment and post treatment
Focus on “Recreation, Re-connection, Restoration, and Relaxation”
Encouraging help-seeking behaviors

We employ high quality staff that is trained in non-profit and clinical work. In addition to our small staff we have many volunteers and contractors trained in psychology and social work that aid our veterans in the families throughout the healing process. Our organization has hosted over 30 retreats in the last 5 years serving over 1,000 veterans and their support persons. Throughout this process we have utilized lessons learned and incorporated them into our programs. We continually seek the latest research and consult daily with experts on post traumatic stress and post traumatic growth to ensure that our Military Support Retreats are using the very best evidence based research.

We will continue to seek additional funding to host more retreats in Georgia and Florida. GratitudeAmerica will add additional programming to our curriculum. Specifically, we plan to begin offering Warrior PATHH (Progressive and Alternative Therapies for Healing Heroes) a program created by the Boulder Crest Retreat in Bluemont, Virginia. Warrior PATHH is a breakthrough, 7-day immersive and intensive experience designed to help combat veterans make peace with their past, so they can begin planning for their new mission at home. Available for both male and female combat veterans (separately), Warrior PATHH focuses on four key elements: education, individual and group therapy, resilience tools, and “taking it home.” Boulder Crest Retreat’s founder, Ken Falke has committed that GratitudeAmerica can license its program for use in the Southeast.