Over the past two weeks I have been playing phone tag with people who developed a very powerful program to help our US veterans transition from military life to civilian life, called ReBOOT. When I listened closely again to the latest voice mail message, I heard a new concept: “Operation Legacy”. So I did what many of us do – I searched Via GOOGLE and found a web site dedicated to another ambitious and valiant effort: a workbook to also help veterans in transition. The statistics are alarming. Perhaps what is most shocking to me is the lesson of leadership that could be learned from these veterans and is slipping through their dedicated hands.
They understand crisis, resolution, critical thinking and teamwork. They need to understand more about transforming – staying part of who they are now – but also developing into a leader in the civilian world by gaining new skills. They deserve the opportunity to build a healthy, sustainable career just as anyone else does – but they start in a different place – from a different platform. They need specialized attention to help them with this transition. The workbook may just do that. Before going on – read these facts reported on Operation legacy site:
Female Iraq war veterans are the fastest growing population of homeless in the U.S. One in four homeless persons is a veteran.
Suicide rates among veterans far exceed the civilian population.
The number of active-duty soldiers getting divorced has been rising sharply with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Joblessness for Veterans age 20 – 24 is three times the national average.”
Now consider what you can do to help. What impressed me was the message not of giving hundreds. Let’s face it – many of us are also out of work. No – the message was asking even for $1. What could happen if ALL who read this gave just $1? Could we supply 20 veterans with this handbook, 200, 2000 – maybe 20,000?
The authors’ goal is two million books. Can you help?
I hope to interview the authors soon and will post updates on this.
To read more about the book and the project, visit this site. http://www.operationlegacy.net/home.html
