Posted on Oct 19, 2018
How would you spend $18 Million per Year on Service Members, Veterans, and their Families?
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RP Members, Connections, and Friends here is a great question provided by a great Civilian Supporter Nicci Eisenhauer
IMAGINE: You’ve got $18 MILLION per year to spend ANY WAY YOU WANT on support for Service members, Veterans and/or their family members (or any combination). How would you spend it?
Active-duty, guard and reserve Service members, Veterans and their families (spouses, domestic partners, and their children) have many unmet needs. Excluding changing anything the VA already offers (but feel free to fill GAPS!), how would you spend the money?
Go ahead, be creative! Maybe you would target the money at only one problem for one specific group OR you might split it up for various purposes: programs, memorials, events or grants for one or more of the different groups. Remember, too, that there are generations of Veterans whose service dates back to WWII. There’s also ROTC and JROTC! Whatever you can think of that matters to you, the only limit is $18 million total per year.
Let’s try to well-organize of everyone’s unique ideas so it’s easy-to-follow. Let’s try this:
1> If your idea is totally new (not already mentioned), or includes a combination of ideas, go ahead and start a whole new comment thread. Feel free to be detailed and say why your ideas (or someone else’s) are important (or not)! However…
2> If someone has already posted your idea and you have nothing more to add, please just simply vote up or down (versus saying: “Good idea/bad idea!” with nothing more to add).
Sound off!
IMAGINE: You’ve got $18 MILLION per year to spend ANY WAY YOU WANT on support for Service members, Veterans and/or their family members (or any combination). How would you spend it?
Active-duty, guard and reserve Service members, Veterans and their families (spouses, domestic partners, and their children) have many unmet needs. Excluding changing anything the VA already offers (but feel free to fill GAPS!), how would you spend the money?
Go ahead, be creative! Maybe you would target the money at only one problem for one specific group OR you might split it up for various purposes: programs, memorials, events or grants for one or more of the different groups. Remember, too, that there are generations of Veterans whose service dates back to WWII. There’s also ROTC and JROTC! Whatever you can think of that matters to you, the only limit is $18 million total per year.
Let’s try to well-organize of everyone’s unique ideas so it’s easy-to-follow. Let’s try this:
1> If your idea is totally new (not already mentioned), or includes a combination of ideas, go ahead and start a whole new comment thread. Feel free to be detailed and say why your ideas (or someone else’s) are important (or not)! However…
2> If someone has already posted your idea and you have nothing more to add, please just simply vote up or down (versus saying: “Good idea/bad idea!” with nothing more to add).
Sound off!
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Edited >1 y ago
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Responses: 30
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1. If this were an annual block grant of $18M with no strings attached and no associated bureaucracy then I think it might be worth taking advantage of for one or more organizations.
2. If bureaucracy is involved as it most likely would be , I would opt that this funding be devoted as efficiently as possible. I would devote the funding to expanding housing for completely disabled veterans near VAMCs. Priority to veterans without family or whose families abandon them.
a. I would get Habitat for Humanity and Samaritans Purse involved in the building and maintenance of the homes.
b. As veterans die the housing would be cleaned and made available for other veterans. Not hospice per se but an expanded version of tiny houses focused entirely on veterans
Thanks for posing the question my friends COL Mikel J. Burroughs and Nicci Eisenhauer and thanks for mentioning me, my friend. SSgt Terry Kohler
2. If bureaucracy is involved as it most likely would be , I would opt that this funding be devoted as efficiently as possible. I would devote the funding to expanding housing for completely disabled veterans near VAMCs. Priority to veterans without family or whose families abandon them.
a. I would get Habitat for Humanity and Samaritans Purse involved in the building and maintenance of the homes.
b. As veterans die the housing would be cleaned and made available for other veterans. Not hospice per se but an expanded version of tiny houses focused entirely on veterans
Thanks for posing the question my friends COL Mikel J. Burroughs and Nicci Eisenhauer and thanks for mentioning me, my friend. SSgt Terry Kohler
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LTC John Griscom
Habitat for Humanity might have to change some of their policies. The ones I have worked on required the recipient to participate in the construction; not sure all vets could handle that. Also, they have a mortgage on the property and if they default on the loan, Habitat takes it back to sell.
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Nicci Eisenhauer
PO2 Gerry Tandberg Definitely NOT putting this funding into the hands of the government and to the best of our ability wouldn't source it there, either! I'd love to be introduced to your friend who manages the Vet Center. If it's the Vet Center VA program that I know of, they are awesome, under recognized and too few. Also, the vast majority of military PSTD sufferers are not combat-PTSD, so when one of them suffers, we need to direct them to services they can use. The VA Vet Centers not only have the requirement of combat-relatedness, it's defined by specific hot zones, as well. (Not good... HOWEVER, if we use $18 million to fill the gaps and augment that program, how awesome would that be?!)
Outreach programs don't go out and identify homeless Veterans, although we could. However, our police, EMS, and Emergency Rooms need protocols they do not have to identify Veterans status -- AND those deserving of discharge upgrades.
AIMS, the organization I founded and am relaunching after an illness has two arms: the AIMS Professional Fellowship which is a professional standards-setting organization ( like any industry organization such as the American Medical Association, or Society Of Professional Engineers or what have you). Your friend would he an awesome member and we'd want all his colleagues to join, too. (Free.) High-level volunteers, according to the 501c6 "business league" designation must be associate members, however, in AIMS, they can certify in our upcoming classes just like the professionals.
The other side of the house is the Service member for Life military community assembly which is modeled on the 501c19 "Veterans Organization" model. This includes Service members, Veterans, their spouses/partners, first-degree relatives and civilian supporters as associate members. There will be classes here as well that teach about available resources, the national infrastructure of veterans support (in all its disconnected and confusing parts and pieces), etc.
On Veterans Day, we are doing a "soft launch", of our AIMS America250 Campaign that will set goals for us all, as a community, to achieve by our Nation's 250th birthday in 2026 -- and beyond.
We are currently re-building our social media website because people can have dual memberships: professional and Service member for Life. We gave a cool coin design... I'll have to post it someplace.
I'd love it if you'd invite me to connect (as a civilian I cannot invite you) and consider connecting me with your friend.
Your service is very meaningful to me and you're the inspiration for my life's work. Thank you for your thoughtful response to the question!
Outreach programs don't go out and identify homeless Veterans, although we could. However, our police, EMS, and Emergency Rooms need protocols they do not have to identify Veterans status -- AND those deserving of discharge upgrades.
AIMS, the organization I founded and am relaunching after an illness has two arms: the AIMS Professional Fellowship which is a professional standards-setting organization ( like any industry organization such as the American Medical Association, or Society Of Professional Engineers or what have you). Your friend would he an awesome member and we'd want all his colleagues to join, too. (Free.) High-level volunteers, according to the 501c6 "business league" designation must be associate members, however, in AIMS, they can certify in our upcoming classes just like the professionals.
The other side of the house is the Service member for Life military community assembly which is modeled on the 501c19 "Veterans Organization" model. This includes Service members, Veterans, their spouses/partners, first-degree relatives and civilian supporters as associate members. There will be classes here as well that teach about available resources, the national infrastructure of veterans support (in all its disconnected and confusing parts and pieces), etc.
On Veterans Day, we are doing a "soft launch", of our AIMS America250 Campaign that will set goals for us all, as a community, to achieve by our Nation's 250th birthday in 2026 -- and beyond.
We are currently re-building our social media website because people can have dual memberships: professional and Service member for Life. We gave a cool coin design... I'll have to post it someplace.
I'd love it if you'd invite me to connect (as a civilian I cannot invite you) and consider connecting me with your friend.
Your service is very meaningful to me and you're the inspiration for my life's work. Thank you for your thoughtful response to the question!
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Nicci Eisenhauer
LTC John Griscom Yikes... I think we need to take a closer look at that and see how there might be a way to supplement the program or support the Veterans more effectively. Have you any ideas, LTC John Griscom ?
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SPC (Join to see)
Number One Rule: The federal government, President, and Congress cannot get their grubby and greedy hands on it, and it should be tax free. I would also have to research the best Veteran programs to give it to since some of these new groups popping up appear to be self serving and exploiting veterans for their own financial gain.
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That's an easy one....Feed a whole lot of folks that are not quite able to make ends meet by way of food pantries and soup kitchens attached to housing for homeless Vets, Families and Children especially....I figure you could cover 2 states with that.
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SFC (Join to see)
Why not use that money to get rid of the lemmings Alan K. and keep our country a whole instead of picking out certain states. I didn’t vote for the trash that’s running PO1 H Gene Lawrence California but I also don’t see anyone else helping get them out.
If I can’t fight for the independence of my state why fight for the independence for my country? What is a country but a whole of United States. Hence the definition “United” and “States”.
If I can’t fight for the independence of my state why fight for the independence for my country? What is a country but a whole of United States. Hence the definition “United” and “States”.
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PO1 H Gene Lawrence
SFC (Join to see) - unfortunately somebody did. I was stationed 4 times in CA when in the Navy. Almost stayed there when I got out, but glad I didn’t. As a matter of fact I moved from my home state of WA for the same reasons.
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SPC (Join to see)
SFC (Join to see) - I always argued against states having their own laws when if this is truly United the laws should apply to all States. There may as well be 50 different countries that make up the United States instead of one. If you don't like the laws in one state you move to another one.
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Active Duty bases have the Fischer House, right? What about a house off post for Veterans and their families? For down on their luck Veterans? $18 million a year can buy a pretty good size house and stock it with clothes and food. I would add offices in that house with SMEs on Financial Planning, Resume Building and Employment Expert. Small Medical Staff to include a Medic, a Nurse Practitioner or PA, and a Behavioral Health Specialist. The possibilities are endless
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Nicci Eisenhauer
Lt Col Charlie Brown Excellent strategic planning suggestion! I believe the VA has statistics on the homeless Veteran concentrations around the US. The va.gov website is a far greater resource than most of us are aware. They do a ton of highly valuable research. If we couldn't get VA stats (it's very difficult to locate homeless Veterans, so we might have to do an on-the-ground outreach in homeless camps, or do a program with police departments and emergency departments, EMS staff establishing a routine and defined protocol to identify Veterans. Those services have the most "touch" on the homeless population. (Not to mention there are homeless people that "pose" as Veterans (that's an aside, but a point to ponder). What do you think? Perhaps we start with the leadership of Fraternal Order of Police, whatever society of ER docs, and other professional organizations that elevate the standards of the the above personnel? Sound plausible?
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CPL Chris Palmberg
For that matter, housing in conjunction with long term treatment at VAMC... when my buddy was going through chemo/ radiation, his lodging was at a cheap hotel in a less than hospitable neighborhood. A Ronald McDonald or Fischer style accommodation would be a definite improvement, particularly for those with serious issues about strangers, traffic, etc..
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Nicci Eisenhauer
CPL Chris Palmberg Thank you so much for sharing this suggestion, as well! These are things we frequently don't think of!
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CPL Chris Palmberg
Nicci Eisenhauer honestly, I can only claim credit for posting them. The idea resulted from conversations we had when the situation presented itself.
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