When My’Kah Knowlin was 10 back in 2011, she heard about the devastation in Joplin, Mo., after a tornado tore through the town, killing more than 150 people and leaving thousands of families with nothing.
My’Kah Knowlin makes a care package delivery.
She persuaded her parents to help her bring care packages to people rebuilding their lives in Joplin, thinking it would be “a one-time service event.” Since then, through the organization she created,
, My’Kah has also put together packages and other donations for Marines in Afghanistan, families of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School and students whose schools were destroyed by tornadoes in Moore, Okla.
Today My’Kah, now 13, is challenging you to fill a box with items you would want if you were away from home. “You can take the box to a military base near you and ask that it be given to a family that may be struggling or a veterans’ hospital,” she says. “If we all fill just one box we could be the difference in many military lives. After all, they have all worked hard to make a difference in our lives.”
On Memorial Day, as the nation faces controversies over the care of veterans, Points of Light is proud to laud those like My’Kah, who strive to be part of the solution. And year-round at Points of Light, we mobilize volunteers to improve the lives of veterans, those still serving and their families.
The Points of Light Community Blueprint provides tools and resources that help communities coordinate services for veterans and their families, with the help of volunteers and veterans themselves. The Community Blueprint has engaged roughly 300 organizations across more than 600 communities.
Our
members to support the needs of veterans who have recently left the military. The program focuses on helping veterans prepare for and find jobs and reconnect with their communities. (Organizations interested in becoming a Veteran Leader Corps host site can
.)
And our VetSuccess AmeriCorps Program is designed to help student veterans on college campuses across the country feel more welcome and connected to their campus and peers. The program guides student veterans toward the services and resources available to them.
On Memorial Day, we join the nation in saluting those who have served. For more on the Community Blueprint and other Points of Light programs serving veterans and their families with the help of volunteers, go to
Michelle Obama and Jill Biden Listened – Will You?
To an audience that included First Lady Michelle Obama and the vice president’s wife Jill Biden, Points of Light’s President of Programs Delores Morton illustrated how volunteers have changed veterans’ lives.
Delores Morton
The event in Washington, D.C., last week brought philanthropic and nonprofit leaders together with the
.
More than 30 philanthropic organizations and corporations have taken the pledge, committing more than $170 million over the next five years to support veterans and military families.
Points of Light is a member of the steering committee of the annual White Oak Conference hosted by
, which brings together the public and private sector to address the ever-changing challenges of military family life. The committee helped secure the pledges.
Following is an excerpt of Morton’s remarks, including what Points of Light is doing to help veterans and their families:
We’re all familiar with Lily Tomlin’s quote: “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”
Three years ago at White Oak, many of the folks in this room recognized that there was a gap in communities of all sizes in how organizations worked together to meet needs of service members, veterans and their families.
These organizations, determined that they were the “somebody” that was needed to help create a solution to this challenge and set out on an ambitious goal of bridging the gap between the more than 40,000 nonprofits dedicated to helping the military community.
The result of this collaboration between organizations like
is the Community Blueprint, which has found a home at Points of Light. We are engaging volunteers and convening communities to create lasting change.
Since its inception, the Community Blueprint has engaged more than 298 organizations across more than 600 communities.
Through the Community Blueprint, we are collecting, creating and disseminating resources that encourage more effective collaboration and help communities to leverage
all
of their available resources – especially volunteer power – to meet needs of America’s warriors and their families. The Community Blueprint’s on-the-ground work takes advantage of the individual skills that veterans can bring to bear in communities to address complex problems.
Points of Light and our partners are working together every day to create programs that benefit both veterans and military families, including two AmeriCorps programs – the Veteran Leader Corps and VetSuccess on Campus.
These AmeriCorps programs demonstrate the collective impact that occurs as a result of cross-sector collaboration – bringing together the Veterans Administration, companies like UPS and Exelis, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
An example of what this looks like in practice is the Bridging the Gap initiative started in partnership with the San Antonio Veteran Coalition and Veterans Leader Corps members. This coalition represents 120 organizations that have connected 400 veterans in rural communities with services that include employment, counseling and education.
Not only are we seeing organizations come together to create more opportunity, we also see the benefits of these partnerships for veterans. Veterans like Marsha J., an Iraq war veteran and single mother who struggled to find stable employment to support her children.
Because of the work of Robert W., a Veteran Leader Corps member stationed at Volunteers of America Chesapeake, Md., Marsha was connected to one of our hiring partners. Within two weeks of their first meeting, she secured a meaningful job as an executive assistant at a defense contracting organization. Marsha conveyed to Robert that that because of our work, she’d gotten back her sense of hope.
While I could quote the statistics that state we have reached more than 10,000 veterans in the first two years of the Veteran Leader Corps program, or supported almost 800 student veterans in just the last five months during which we have operated Vet Success on Campus, it is more meaningful to bring this work to life for you.
Our VetSuccess On Campus program – a pilot initiative in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs – has helped many veterans understand and access the education benefits available to them.
People like Kaleb W., a disabled veteran looking for ways to increase his chances of securing a better job with his brain injury. Because of the work of Amanda Linville, a VetSuccess member and military spouse at Boise State University, Kaleb is enrolled in school pursing a college degree using his Veteran Education Benefits.
Stories like these and many others are only possible because of the strong public and private partnerships that we have made.
I invite everyone to learn more about what we are doing to change communities and how your organization can get involved.
Read more about the Community Blueprint and other Points of Light programs serving veterans and their families at
Reaching Out to Homeless Vets in a Simple, Yet Meaningful, Way
In honor of National Volunteer Week, April 6-12, USA Weekend and Points of Light are recongizing the 2013 Make A Difference Day honorees, who will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on April 10. Here we tell the story of an Arizona woman and a group of friends who make clothes for homeless veterans.
It all started with a 14-hour airplane ride in 2010 and a loom knitter.
Rather than grumble about the hours of travel she faced flying to Australia and New Zealand, Peggy McGee decided to put the time to good use. Although she’s not an expert knitter, she decided to use the loom to make hats for homeless veterans.
The Women of Quail Creek, and friends, stand among donated items for veterans.
When a woman she met at a local thrift shop donated 39 skeins of yarn to the project, McGee’s idea really took shape.
“I knew there was no way I could ever use it all up and told some of
, members that if they would do the knitting I would provide the yarn,” says McGee, 69, of the club for women who live in the same 55-and-older adult active community in Green Valley, Ariz. “And as they say, ‘The rest is history.’”
The effort has grown into a clothing drive for homeless veterans, held on Make A Difference Day for the past three years.
“After we were told last year that our donations kept the homeless veteran population in the Tucson area clothed for two months, we were determined to do more this year given the number of veterans who had just recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan,” says McGee.
Mission accomplished. Besides handmade hats and other clothing items for Make A Difference Day 2013, held on Oct. 26, community members donated bed and kitchen linens, business suits, vacuum cleaners, backpacks, trashcans and money. The 18 volunteers sorted about 3,000 items and delivered them to the
.
“These donations help raise the recipients’ self-esteem and make they feel good that the community cares about them,” says Jodi Frederick, clinical director of Rehabilitation Programs. “It gives them dignity and hope.”
Check out the other Make A Difference Day honorees at www.makeadifferenceday.com/winners.
Veterans: Make the Most of Your Skills as a Civilian Professional
Participants of the first round of the Leveraging Military
Leadership Program meet in McLean, Va.
Are you a veteran wondering how to apply your leadership skills to the civilian workforce?
, a four-month, competitive program designed to help veterans get ahead in their post-military careers.
The first round of the program, which kicked off last month, welcomed a class of 35 veterans with military experience ranging from junior enlisted to senior officer ranks in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
, Exelis’ chief human resources officer, told the first group of participants as they gathered at Exelis’ headquarters in McLean, Va.: “You know military culture; your new company has a culture, too. You must learn it. Listen and adapt to that culture. … Your key skill is agility. You must use that to make yourself successful.”
The program consists of online, integrated learning components and one-on-one coaching. Participants learn how to chart their professional journeys and how to apply their leadership skills in civilian positions.
Erica Jeffries
“These leadership development services are the same level that Korn Ferry delivers to boards, CEOs and senior executives,” said
, Exelis chief inclusion and diversity officer. “Korn Ferry’s expertise in leadership development, coupled with insight from Exelis employees who are also veterans, provided the winning combination to make this program the true success that it is.”
Jeffries, a former White House fellow and Army helicopter pilot, is the force behind the program’s creation. While participating in an Exelis leadership development program, designed and led by Korn Ferry, she was planning a project to set veterans up for success as they depart military service.
Korn Ferry was eager to extend its reach to serve veterans and their families. It was clear that a partnership between Korn Ferry, Exelis Action Corps and Points of Light would provide veterans the rare opportunity to experience world-class civilian leadership training.
“The Korn Ferry volunteer team has been privileged to work with these accomplished veterans, helping them successfully move into the next chapter of their careers,” said
, Korn Ferry senior partner and key program faculty member. “This comprehensive experience will help them network, plan and strategize for the next phase of their life and career.”
Distinguished veterans are selected through a competitive process. Many of the participating veterans hold public and private sector management positions across a variety of industries.
“Without the support of Points of Light, we would not have received the level of interest we did for the program in such a short time,” said Jeffries. “Because Points of Light spread the word of this rare opportunity throughout their Community Blueprint Network, we could select from a large pool of qualified candidates.”
The Leveraging Military Leadership Program will convene at least twice more this year and quarterly beginning in 2015. The next class opportunity details and application information will be posted
This post is by Molly Blake, managing editor of Blue Star Families, a Points of Light partner.
If you haven’t read Time magazine’s “Are U.S. Veterans Selfish?” you might want to. It’s a powerful article, albeit with an unfortunate title. I’m a Marine Corps spouse – my husband served 20 years – and I can say without a shadow of doubt that vets are not selfish.
Lawmakers, congressional staffers and policy wonks may or may not plow through the more than 800 comments from readers at the end of the article to get a handle on how the military community feels about the budget cuts or commissary closings.
Often, they want research. They want smart answers to smart questions. They are interested in knowing how the lives of military families are affected by deployments, relocations, financial constraints and, yes, budget cuts.
If you are part of a military family, here’s something you can do: Voice your concerns when the 2014 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey. (Click here to access the survey.) Put your thoughts together – think about the realities of our lives, our challenges, our interactions with our kids and their schooling and mental well-being.
The 2013 Survey was designed by Blue Star Families, a Points of Light partner, with extensive input from military family members and advocates, subject matter experts and policymakers who work with military families. The survey is intended to facilitate a more complete understanding of the experiences of military families so that communities and policymakers can better serve their unique needs, thereby making voluntary military service sustainable.
Here are just a few of the ways previous surveys have made an impact: We’ve seen increasingly higher numbers of private sector businesses and employers equipped to address the unique needs of military families, including veterans and spouses – such as portable, flexible work.
The results have also provided a better understanding how family finances and concerns about finances are impacting military families and have increased programming around military family finances. And, there’s been an increase in the number of states and schools around the country that recognize the unique needs of children in military families and educators who know how to support them.
These are real results and just a few examples of tangible ways survey-takers’ thoughts have been translated into action. So, as military wife and mother of three Terri Barnes suggested last year, “grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich and take the survey!” You can find it here.
Enjoying a sunny, spring-like day in Washington, D.C., today, public figures, veterans, students and families gathered at Dunbar High School – the country’s first public high school for black students – to transform Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of unity and community into hands-on volunteer service.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough,
right, helps out on the care pack assembly line.
“Today is a day of service and it’s important to give back,” said Nicole Isaac, a veteran and volunteer who drove in from northern Virginia to help out during the Points of Light Family and Community Fun Day. “We’ve come so far, but there’s still so much more to do to help communities sustain themselves.”
Volunteers – including White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman,
students – assembled 500 care packs containing shirts, shorts, sandals and pants, for wounded service members recovering in hospitals overseas.
Veterans at the event benefited from resume reviews and a resource fair showcasing agencies that help veterans and military families.
Exelis Action Corps volunteers help assemble care
packs for wounded service members.
Meanwhile, kids enjoyed balloon animals and face painting. (One of the boys kept looking up at his mom and asking, “Am I still Batman?”) They also learned how to pack healthy lunches and participated in a fitness challenge – jumping through hula hoops and walking like a crab.
The activities were made possible by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The federal agency, which leads the MLK Day of Service, awarded $125,000 to Points of Light to support volunteer projects at eight nonprofits across the country to feed the hungry, clean up parks and schools, provide financial literacy workshops and more. The nonprofits committed to bringing together 175,000 volunteers through the long holiday weekend.
In another recognition of the MLK Day of Service, today Points of Light honored Christine Wright and her daughter Melanie Stevenson of Birmingham, Ala., with a Daily Point of Light Award. More than a decade ago, Wright and Stevenson created a family tradition of bringing three generations together every MLK Day to volunteer. Read their story here.
It’s not too late to participate in MLK Day of Service-related activities. Visit
, where you can pledge to host an America’s Sunday Supper honoring Dr. King.
Let us know how you celebrated the MLK Day of Service. We’d love to hear from you at
Lindsey Kirksey stands outside his childhood home.
Lindsey Kirksey’s childhood home is falling apart – two of the four rooms are literally separating from each other. And while he cherishes the memories of growing up in the cozy, one-story house in Montgomery, Ala., he knows it’s time for it to go.
“The volunteers I spoke to – they are just like me; they want to help people just like I want to help people,” Kirksey says. “I believe what comes around goes around. I have been so blessed and because of that I try to help others. And I think they feel the same.”
Kirksey served in the Army Chemical Corps during the Korean War, laying ground cover for troop movement. Since then, he has led life of service. He has taught math in low-income neighborhoods in the Montgomery area; used his teaching skills at Bidwell Training Center, a vocational school in Pittsburgh that reaches out to those who need help turning their lives around; and served as a corrections officer in Selma, Ala.
Volunteers are helping Lindsey Kirksey move out of his
home temporarily, including packing his possessions.
Kirksey’s home – known as a “shotgun house,” one room wide and four rooms deep – is beyond repair. The volunteer project will require demolishing the nearly 100-year-old structure and erecting a new house based on the original floor plan.
“When we reviewed his application (for assistance), what really stood out was his overwhelming story and the fact that he has dedicated his life to service,” says Nell Weisenfeld, volunteer coordinator and program manager at HandsOn River Region. “He also grew up in this home. In fact, when we reviewed the home we even found paperwork from his father when he was helping the church across the street – and that really hit a chord with us.”
The volunteers from Exelis Action Corps, the signature volunteer service program for aerospace and defense company Exelis, are stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery. Exelis supports the base through civil engineering, airfield management, communications, recreation and more.
“At Maxwell we employ all kinds of trades, people who are experts in doing this kind of work, and a large percentage of us are also veterans,” says Jeffrey Jackson, deputy program manager at Exelis at Maxwell. “We’re excited about joining forces with our local community and making life better for one of our own.”
For Kirksey, the new house has more than just physical significance: “Where I live, they used to call it the Beverly Hills, but now the neighborhood is going down and people are leaving. People ask me why I want to stay here and I say this is my background, there is history here.”
Dee Moody, executive director of Rebuilding Together Central Alabama, says the focus is on rebuilding, not destroying.
“Our purpose is to revitalize neighborhoods and keep communities together,” Moody says. “Sometimes people have to choose between home repairs and medicine, or home repairs and food on the table, and our job is to make it easier for them.”
On Veterans Day, Three Powerful Stories of Service
This post is by Tracy Hoover, president of Points of Light.
This Veterans Day, I’d like to pay tribute to all veterans by telling you the story of three people – a boy who lost his dad on 9/11, an Army helicopter pilot and West Point graduate, and a Marine coping with PTSD. All three are making a difference through their service to America’s returning heroes.
At age 5, Sean Egan lost his father, a New York fire captain, on 9/11. Today he is a senior at Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island and founder of Hearing Our Heroes, an organization of 300 high school students who regularly visit and help veterans. They shovel snow in winter, do yard work in the summer, and come up with a surprise every now and then.
This summer, they surprised returning combat veteran Army Private Rasheed Akbar. During his deployment in Kuwait, Rasheed’s young daughter was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment. Like too many other military families must, the Akbars had to endure great sadness and hardship while separated. When Rasheed’s tour of duty was finally complete, Hearing Our Heroes honored his service and his family’s sacrifice with a celebration of his homecoming.
Erica Jeffries served in the Army for five years, flying helicopters to deliver supplies to the troops. Today she’s a diversity officer at Exelis, a defense and aerospace company in Reston, Va. Exelis partners with Points of Light and AmeriCorps to support the Community Blueprint and Veteran Leader Corps, national programs that coordinate and improve services for returning veterans and their families.
Erica is one of the Exelis Action Corps leaders who are dedicated to serving veterans and military families. Erica and her co-workers volunteer regularly with Fisher House, a nonprofit providing temporary housing for military families near hospitals where their loved ones are recovering from combat injuries.
“When I was on active duty, my mother was able to stay at Fisher House in Texas while I was in the hospital,” says Erica. “It was a wonderful gift and a blessing to our family.” Read more about Erica’s story here.
Heath Cobb, a former Marine who served in the Middle East, returned home with what he calls “the scars of war.” As he writes, “Rehab and mental institutions became commonplace. My often bizarre behavior was fueled by rage and I found myself in a vicious cycle of hate.”
An aunt suggested to Heath that he get involved in the community as a volunteer. The effort turned his life around. “I found the pride I felt when serving others was the same pride I felt by defending others,” he writes. “Suddenly, almost overnight, my sense of self was restored, my identity renewed.”
Today Heath is an AmeriCorps member and a member of Points of Light’s Veteran Leader Corps serving other veterans in Georgia. Read more about him here.
Today let us remember, thank and celebrate veterans. And let us honor their service and sacrifice through our actions. Please volunteer, advocate for and support veterans and their families. Click here to learn more.
I’ve thought a lot about what it means to live in poverty.
In 2001, when I was 18, I joined the Navy. I knew I wanted to go to college, and that the Navy would help me get there. I had never been out of the country. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Navy showed me the world.
When I left the Navy in 2005, I struggled to build a life for myself and, eventually, my two young daughters. I hit a point in my life where I was on the edge of my seat – a single mom trying to figure out how I was going to keep my life stable. I found myself going to the local food bank to keep food on the table, not knowing whether I was going to come home to my utilities being turned off – all while trying to maintain the welfare of my family, trying to keep a level head and trying to keep good grades in school.
I thought about everything that could go wrong, even though I knew that everything was going to be all right. I thought about the chances of my life spiraling into what I thought poverty was. With my military background and as a veteran, I would have never thought that finding a job would be so challenging or that I would be at a point in my life where I felt that I had nowhere to turn.
I came to Military Women in Need for help with my utility bills. The woman who helped me told me of an opportunity to use my experience to help others like me through the Veteran Leader Corps, an AmeriCorps program run by Points of Light with support from Exelis. Veterans put their lives on the line to serve this country and should not be subjected to hunger and homelessness. I knew that I wasn’t the only person who needed help, and I wanted to contribute to making a change.
I tell vets who face joblessness and homelessness something I tell myself: “Every day you get up, make sure you do something that’s going to help yourself today.” In my own life, if I look at the big picture it gets overwhelming. Sometimes you have to go little by little, day by day.
I joined the Veteran Leader Corps, which allows me to prepare vets for re-entering the workforce, because I wanted to help veterans get what they need to be successful in life. It is our duty as citizens to do what we can for the welfare of this country, of ourselves, and each other, so that no one ends up in poverty.
