Joining Forces Blog

Joining Forces Announces Community Challenge Finalists

Posted by Kirsten White on February 6, 2012 at 12:53 PM EST

Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden announced 20 finalists as part of the Joining Forces Community Challenge, an effort to recognize and celebrate citizens, communities, and organizations who have demonstrated a deep commitment to service by improving the lives of military families and veterans. The 20 finalists are profiled on http://joiningforces.challenge.gov/. You can participate by visiting the site and voting for your favorite submission to be the People’s Choice Winner, which will be announced on March 16. In addition to the People’s Choice Winner, five additional winners will be chosen with input from a panel of distinguished judges including Tom Brokaw, J.R. Martinez, Sloan Gibson, Mayor Julian Castro, and Deanie Dempsey. The First Lady and Dr. Biden will announce those winners and honor all 20 finalists at the White House later this spring.

The challenge received more than 300 submissions in three months – inspiring stories about extraordinary Americans going the extra mile to show their support and appreciation for our troops and families. The First Lady and Dr. Biden have always said that Joining Forces is about all Americans going to their strengths – and doing what they do best – to enhance the lives of military families. And, while only 20 submissions were selected as finalists – all of the entries demonstrate a deep dedication to service and commitment to our troops, veterans and their families. The Joining Forces team congratulates and thanks everyone who entered, and their volunteers and supporters, for their service to our troops. We are inspired and energized by their heartwarming stories.

The First Lady and Dr. Biden have visited military communities across the country to spend time with military families and the many people who support them. The Challenge entries demonstrate exactly the spirit of service they have seen all across America. They hope that highlighting their work will inspire similar efforts to support military families in communities throughout the Nation. So, please join us in congratulating the finalists, and visit http://joiningforces.challenge.gov/ to vote for your favorite submission.

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Jobs for Military Spouses

Posted by Brad Cooper on January 31, 2012 at 3:02 PM EST

Militaryspouses participate in the the Dependable Strengths workshop at the 2012 MOAA Blue Star Families Military Spouse Symposium in San Diego

On a day when many folks were walking along San Diego’s stunning beaches or sailing on the crystalline blue Mission Bay, more than 500 military spouses packed a windowless conference room for one reason: Jobs.

The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and Blue Star Families Military Spouse Symposium & Career Fair last Thursday in San Diego, California, drew a huge crowd eager for information, opportunities and employment. Dubbed “Keeping a Career on the Move,” the event brought local companies, virtual organizations, non-profits, and job seekers together for a one-day event to promote job opportunities for San Diego-area military spouses.

“The military spouses at this event were hungry for information on how to get hired, navigate questions about military life with an employer, and break through the glass ceiling of underemployment that is rampant among this talented community,” said Monique Rizer, deputy director of spouse programs for the Military Officers Association of America and the annual spouse symposium producer.

An employer panel featuring Facebook, the Society for Human Resource Management, CSC and the United Way was the highlight of the day. “Employers not only provided practical information, but really motivated the attendees to focus on their strengths, work ethic, and value they bring no matter how many jobs or how many moves they’ve had,” Rizer said. “It was an inspiring day.”

Sponsored by TriWest Healthcare Alliance and supported by Joining Forces, the symposium included a workshop on finding one’s strengths and a career fair featuring more than 50 local employers, many who were Military Spouse Employment Partners.

“I was struck by how well the employers at the symposium related to the issues that military spouses face in their transient lifestyles as they support the active duty member,” said Josi Hunt, wife of Vice Admiral Richard Hunt, Commander, Naval Surface Forces. “The power of this gathering was the insight passed to spouses, as to how they can go about marketing their own skills for today's job force. Military spouses are rich additions to any community, each with diverse employment and educational backgrounds. The information gathered will be a great addition to their lifestyles and will make our military families stronger.”

“The collaboration between public, private and nonprofit provided a balanced and powerful resource for military spouses,” said Stephanie Himel-Nelson, communications director for Blue Star Families.

All told, a great day in San Diego – and there's a lot more to follow in 2012 on military spouse employment!

Stephanie Himel-Nelson (BSF) moderates the employer panel “Five Things Employers Want You to Know" at the 2012 MOAA Blue Star Families Military Spouse Symposium in San Diego. L-R Pam Green, Society for Human Resource Management; Sara Sperling, Facebook; Karen Bricklemyer, United Way; Cindy Alanis, CSC.

Related: Employment resources for veterans and military spouses

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Secretary Shinseki to the Private Sector: Hire our Veterans

Posted by Colleen Curtis on January 27, 2012 at 6:58 PM EST

Ed note: This was originally posted on the VA's blog, VAntage

This week, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki met with National Franchise business leaders in Atlanta to promote Veteran employment. The effort was the part of the Obama Administration’s Joining Forces Initiative, which aims for a simple yet important goal: To connect our Veterans and their families with meaningful employment.

Secretary Shinseki talked about a win for everyone involved; a win for employers that receive great, disciplined, and hardworking employees and Veterans, who have the ability to achieve their goals out of uniform.

It’s all part of a plan to support Veterans, as the President said in the State of the Union, “so that America is as strong as those who defend her.”

The International Franchise Association has pledged to hire and recruit 75,000 Veterans and their spouses by 2014. With the example they set, I hope it’s a trend that continues across America.

Secretary Shinseki has made a strong case for Veterans in the workplace. “They make exceptional employees and business leaders,” he told the collection of business leaders in Atlanta. “Let’s hire them. Let’s find them work.”

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Dr. Biden Highlights Joining Forces at Palo Alto Polytrauma Center, Code for America and University of Southern California

Posted by Melanie Kaye on January 26, 2012 at 8:06 PM EST

Dr. Jill Biden with members of the Building Capacity in Military-Connected Schools project, which is based at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. Dr. Biden visited USC to hear about how educators, parents and military students have benefited from the project, which focuses on improving the climate of civilian schools to be more welcoming and supportive of military children and their families. (by Brian Goodman) (by Brian Goodman)

Last week, Dr. Jill Biden traveled to California for several Joining Forces events – including a visit with wounded warriors at the Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center, a veterans’ employment event at Code for America and a roundtable discussion at the University of Southern California about how various community efforts support military children in schools.

At the polytrauma center – one of five in the country designed to provide intensive care to veterans and service members who have been severely injured – Dr. Biden met with wounded warriors and learned about the ways the hospital supports them and their families in their long-term recovery.

Dr. Jill Biden listens to patient experiences at the VA Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center. (by Curt Campbell) January 20, 2012. (by Curt Campbell)

In San Francisco, Dr. Biden joined U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Peter Levin, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, at Code for America to highlight Joining Forces at an “Apps for Heroes” event. Dr. Biden saw a demonstration of three “apps” designed to link veterans with mentoring and job search opportunities and thanked the technology companies who have innovated new ways to support veterans.
At a roundtable discussion to learn more about the USC School of Social Work’s Building Capacity in Military-Connected Schools project, Dr. Biden said the effort was the perfect example of the goal of Joining Forces – to encourage all Americans to understand the challenges faced by military families and to take action to support them. The program is a partnership between USC and eight military-connected school districts to better support military students in schools. Dr. Biden heard from educators, parents and students about the many ways the program is working in schools – from a pride club that supports military students to celebrating the Marine Corps’ birthday in schools to ways teachers are helping transfer students adjust to new schools.

Dr. Biden wrapped up her Joining Forces events with a visit to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California, where she visited with Marines and Sailors and their families. She spent time with Marines preparing to deploy at the Infantry Immersion Trainer, visited with Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians and their families, and met with wounded Marines and Sailors and their families. Read more about the visit here.

Melanie Kaye is Director of Communications to Second Lady Jill Biden.

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Dr. Jill Biden: Honoring Our Military and Their Families at Camp Pendleton

Posted by Dr. Jill Biden on January 26, 2012 at 7:59 PM EST

Dr. Jill Biden meets Female Engagement Team members preparing to deploy to Afghanistan following a combat simulation exercise at Camp Pendleton, CA., Jan 20, 2012. January 20, 2012. (by Melanie Kaye)

Last Friday, I was honored to spend the day with Marines and families preparing for deployment at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. It was a very special day. As Second Lady, there is nothing I enjoy more than visiting our military and their families. I am honored that they share their successes, pride, and challenges with me, and that when I bring their concerns back to the White House, they help shape policy. But as a military mom, these visits are also personal. Each Marine I met on Friday is someone’s son or daughter, and I know well the mixture of pride and worry a family member feels when a loved one is preparing to go to war.

In the morning, I visited with Marines in combat training at the Infantry Immersion Trainer. I viewed a combat simulation exercise at the state-of-the art facility that is designed to resemble an Afghan village, down to every detail. The training is intended to prepare deploying Marines for the stress of combat. The visit made a deep and lasting impression on me, and it was a firm reminder of what our troops and their families sacrifice for us every single day – half a world away. After the simulation, I met with Female Engagement Team members preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. These young women go on foot patrols with Marine infantry units on the front lines in Afghanistan to interact with Afghan women and girls. I was inspired by their courage and determination, and their pride in what they do.

Our next stop was Family Day with members of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company and their families. The EOD team performs missions in extremely dangerous conditions, and they have very high injury rates. Almost all of the EOD team members I met are married, and many have young children – who also sacrifice every day while their Marines are in harm’s way. After lunch, I stopped at the EOD “hero wall,” a photo memorial honoring fallen Marines and Sailors. I will never forget their faces. One Marine – speaking of a fallen warrior – told me “he saved my life.”

read the rest

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Celebrating Our Veterans With “Apps for Heroes”

Posted by Aneesh Chopra and Peter Levin on January 23, 2012 at 11:14 PM EST

Last Wednesday, we joined Dr. Jill Biden at the Code for America headquarters, a non-profit startup that has attracted dozens of civic-minded software developers spending a year building new products and services – powered, in part, by open government data – to improve the lives of everyday Americans.

Dr. Biden celebrated the convening efforts of Code and 10 apps developed by the private sector to improve the employment prospects for our Nation’s heroes – from apps that help veterans build new skills or a professional network, to a personalized list of open job postings. We observed the results of LinkedIn’s “Veterans Hackday” – two of the 44 apps built over a weekend; a collaboration between two tech companies that had never worked together before – Jibe and KMS Software – to deliver an almost-paperless approach to qualify for eligible tax credits; and the impressive work of a veteran entrepreneur, Fidelis, focused on the military to civilian transition.

We saw these and other “Apps for Heroes” because Code for America made a commitment last August in response to the President’s call to action. We joined Code on this mission and engaged a broader voluntary collaborative of tech firms already active in the employment and training online market. They didn’t ask us for money. Rather, we brainstormed how government data, if released in a people-and-computer-friendly format, could serve as “rocket fuel” for their apps.

And then we went to work.

Inspired by President Obama’s Open Government Initiative and guided by the U.S. National Action Plan, we identified at least three areas where we might open up data that had previously been either in an inaccessible format, organized in a fragmented way, or largely unknown to the developer community:
1. Military Service Information: Veterans today collect a form – the DD-214 – that captures their military “resume”; while it can be electronically accessed, the data within the form is protected and in a form that isn’t accessible for a computer to read. Building on the momentum of VA’s initiative, Dr. Levin expanded their “Blue Button” service - which enables a veteran to safely and securely download their personal health data in computer-friendly form - to include a veteran’s service history, training, and credentials. Launched just in the beginning of December, over 60,000 veterans have already downloaded a “Blue Button” file that can be shared with the products and service as they see fit, like the apps for heroes we saw last week.
2. Military Skills Translator: The Department of Labor actively supports a non-profit, the O*Net center, to maintain a growing portfolio of tools and data sets that are freely available to developers or anyone for that matter. The problem was that very few of the developers we engaged over the past several months were even aware of this resource. When we showed them what we had they immediately went to work on “translating” military experience into skills that are relevant for their existing products and services.
3. Job Postings from Employers Seeking Veterans: President Obama launched the“Veterans Job Bank” last November, which provides access to hundreds of thousands of job postings from employers actively committed to hiring veterans. Built on an open standard, the “JobPosting” schema – endorsed by a coalition of search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) through the schema.org community – empowers any employer to ensure its job postings are discoverable by the Job Bank. The big idea is that instead of requiring every employer to update a centralized database, we can dynamically “search” for veteran-committed jobs. Its faster, cheaper, and more reliable way to connect employers to talent. The Job Bank itself is accessible at the National Resource Directory and its search widget, built in an effort to support developers has offered an API that delivers search results straight to the app.
Finally, I thought to share the power of Open Innovation @ Internet speed. At a Summer Jobs + event last Tuesday, Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson challenged the Twilio developer community to build an “App for Heroes.” In about an hour – from concept to go-live – developer Tony Webster built HeroJobs.org, a text messaging app that sends job alerts to veterans every morning based on their preferences, experience, and zip code.

We were humbled and honored that so many innovative firms volunteered their time and effort to incorporate these – and other open government data sets – as an important ingredient for their innovate employment or training support service. Our visit inspired us to push even harder to release government data, celebrate its use, and to engage our veterans directly to ensure they have the support they need in this important life transition.

Aneesh Chopra is U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Peter Levin is Chief Technology Officer and Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs

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