Giving back to service members and military support organizations is something ClearanceJobs takes pride in. It’s also something we encourage our customers to be a part of, with programs like this year’s holiday giveaway to Hope For The Warriors, where customer votes decided which programs would receive the greatest percentage of a $5,000 contribution.
Hope For The Warriors is a non-profit organization with more than 90 percent of donations going directly to assist wounded service members, their families, and families of the fallen. They offer 11 distinct programs that assist in everything from family care to financial needs and morale building trips.
Your votes are in, and the Hope For The Warriors Family Reintegration Program was the most selected program, with Wounded Warrior Unit Support getting the next greatest share of the donation. Thanks to your participation, this new and much heralded program will have additional funding as they look to care for service members and their families as they transition.
“Supporting transitioning service members and their family members is a great effort we’re happy to take part in,” said Evan Lesser, founder and managing director of ClearanceJobs.com. “Seventy-five percent of job seekers on the Cleared Network are veterans, so supporting that community as they take the step from military service to the civilian world is something we think about every day.”
When service members return home the process of reintegration can often seem as daunting as any overseas mission. While there are many programs available for transitioning service members, only a few incorporate the importance of relationships with spouses and family members.
The prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress and the reality that family members were often left out in treatment programs is one of the reasons Hope For The Warriors created the Family Reintegration Program with Holliswood Hospital.
“After months and sometimes years, our service members are being identified and diagnosed with PTSD and entering treatment programs,” writes Anne Woods, public relations director for Hope For The Warriors. “Treatment programs range from one-on-one psychotherapy to group therapy and applying a wide range of theoretical approaches. Both inpatient and outpatient programs are utilized, depending on the needs of that service member. In most programs, the service member is the only patient — treatment interventions are aimed directly toward this one person. Family members are an ancillary part of the process at best, and may have no involvement in the treatment process.”
A Pew Research Report in 2011 found something many found surprising – transitioning from deployment back to civilian life was actually more difficult for married service members than it was for non-married service members. The report cited the strain of multiple deployments on family members as a factor. It’s also a reality that while Post Traumatic Stress has garnered significant attention in the past several years, the role family members play in it has not.
The Family Reintegration Program bridges the gap between the treatment options available, and the need to include family member support in the process. Created in partnership with Holliswood Hospital in Queens, N.Y., the program assists with many of the issues military families seeking treatment encounter. The program educates family members, as well as providing therapy and support. Inpatient treatment for service members and their families includes family and marital therapy, and assistance in pinpointing other needs continues long after inpatient treatment. From assisting with a job search to helping handle debt concerns, the program looks at the needs of the entire family and develops a way forward.
“Hope For The Warriors conveyed a sense of genuine caring that we had not experienced before – and not just for our family – we saw them reaching out to other families who were experiencing the same struggles that we were – allowing us to realize more concretely that we were not alone in this, said Brian Hammerschmidt, the father of a Marine who served in Afghanistan.
“The impact of their efforts cannot be overstated. It really is difficult to express our gratitude for the work that Hope For The Warriors is doing — we have experienced it first hand as a family – and we know that there are many other families who have been blessed by their work – just as we have been.”
For more information about Hope For The Warriors and the Family Reintegration Program, visit http://www.hopeforthewarriors.org/.
