WoVeN (Women Veteran's Network) Series: Weeks 1 & 2

The WoVeN mission is to provide a unique social network of women Veterans to foster connections and build relationships in local communities and across the nation. Over the next 8 weeks, I will take you through our program from start to finish.

As a peer leader you go through virtual training with an amazing team of women (pre COVID the training was in person). We learned, danced, laughed, ate some awesome food and had the best time. It’s so fun when the second day of training (also the last day) comes because you don’t want it to end. That is just how magnetic their energy and personalities can be.

After finishing your peer leaders course, you move onto conducting your own virtual zoom meetings with a co-peer leader providing you the opportunity to meet even more wonderful ladies.

First week’s meeting can be a bit daunting for me because I get a little anxiety from meeting new people. However, with the help of my co-peer leader it never lasts long and once I see the women and their smiling faces and how open their heart is I just become overwhelmed with joy. As with any new group of people we introduce ourselves and we talk about why we decided to be a part of WoVen and what we hope to gain from joining the group. We also give the ladies time to give us a backstory on their military career and family life. A reflection letter is one of the handouts given in the first week. The reflection letter handout is my favorite because you write a letter to yourself while also answering the questions on the handout and on the eighth week each lady read her letter out loud sort of how I started and how I finished the situation. A few examples of some questions would be:

1. What does it mean to be joining a group of women Veterans?
2. What are your hopes for yourself in this group? Do you have any specific goals?
3. What role do you hope to play in this group?
4. What are your hopes for the group as a whole?

Transitioning out the military and throughout life can be very stressful among a lot of other things. Our second week’s topic is all about how we as female Veterans handled our life transitions not only out the military but . In my group I like for the ladies to give me two lists of life path transitions, their military career and life after transitioning out of the military. I like to read my two life paths first and then allow the ladies to share. I find that by me putting myself out there helps the ladies with their comfortability and opening up more and it also helps them to trust the fact that I am just as vulnerable and open as they are. In my group I also stress the fact that all life transitions do not have to be negative, that there are some exciting and positive ones, and those transitions are the ones we should focus on. In our discussion I ask the ladies several different questions about their life’s transitions and their experiences on how they handled that life transition at the time and did it make a positive or negative impact on their life. The transition topic is always such a good conversation because it helps my group to get to know one another on a deeper level. This topic is also amazing because if one of us is in a negative or positive transition in life we uplift, support and encourage because the mission is to provide a unique social network for women Veterans to foster connections and build relationships in their local communities and across the nation.

Read week 3 here: http://rly.pt/3vQfWZL
Visit the WoVeN website to learn more here: http://rly.pt/3ln0FLl