February 2012 – National Center for PTSD

One in three returning US Service Members experiences signs of depression, PTSD, or symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. Family members of these Veterans will also seek services. Primary care, community mental health, and other providers can prepare by participating in free trainings now available.

From the War Zone to the Home Front: Supporting the Mental Health of Veterans and Families*. A series of free, live, online trainings for primary care, mental health, VA and all providers. Free CEs are available. Register now*.

• Every Thursday 11:30 am – 12:30 pm ET (starts 2/23/2012)
• 14 online sessions, attend one or all
• Targeted to community primary care and mental health providers
• Interactive format allows you to ask questions of presenters
• All sessions archived online

Presented by NCPTSD in collaboration with the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital: Home Base Program*.

January 30, 2012 – National Resource Directory

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement new statutory amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act that would expand military family leave provisions and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees. The FMLA, enacted in 1993, entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. The proposed language would extend the entitlement of military caregiver leave to family members of Veterans for up to five years after leaving the military. At this time, the law only covers family members of “currently serving” service members.

Visit the National Resource Directory for more information about this law, as well as other resources that support military families and caregivers.

January 30, 2012 – Army National Guard

The Army Reserve, the Army Human Resources Command and the Army National Guard have joined to provide Individual Ready Reserve soldiers and their families a way to connect with the military community.

By affiliating Individual Ready Reserve soldiers and their families with a local reserve-component unit, the IRR Affiliation Program creates a support network intended to improve readiness and encourage soldiers with valuable skills to continue their service, officials said.

After the Army Reserve initiated the program, Army Lt. Gen. William E. Ingram Jr., director of the Army National Guard, recognized its value and committed the Army Guard as a partner, bringing connections to hundreds of units through armories and family programs in communities nationwide.

“[The IRR Affiliation Program] is a total support network, and the [Army National Guard] wanted to be a part of it to ensure that soldiers and their families are connected to the Army family,” said John Schmidt, a program lead from the Army Guard’s personnel policy division.

Read the full article.

Please help get the word out about two upcoming events.  See attached flyer for details and feel free to forward.  There will be a Hiring Heroes job fair on February 10 from 9am-12pm at the Crown Center-1960 Coliseum Drive, in Fayetteville.  Click on this link to register:  https://hoh.greatjob.net/sc/viewEvent.action?id=105284

This fair is open to all veterans, families and transitioning service members.  The event is free for vendors so please consider hosting a table.  This is a great opportunity for start ups, small businesses, local colleges and nonprofits, priced out of some job fairs, to showcase their companies.  That’s a win-win for job seekers and employers, so please pass this information along to potential employers (big companies & small companies).  It’s also a great chance to showcase your resources and volunteer opportunities (to network and enhance their resumes).  Our experience indicates that combined resource/job fairs are more effective than stand alone fairs.  Sign up is easy.  Click on this link to get started: https://hoh.greatjob.net/sc/viewEvent.action?id=105284.  Then, post it on facebook, tweet it, add it to your blog & webpage, forward the e-mail and ask all of your contacts to do the same.  Lets make this event a huge success!

In addition, on February 2 from 3:30pm – 7pm, the North Carolina Society of Human Resource Management will conduct a workshop & mock interviews to help to prepare our Heroes for this upcoming job fair.  The workshop will be held at the Fayetteville Public Works Building at 955 Old Wilmington Road, Fayetteville, NC 28301 on February 2, 2012.  Register for this workshop event by emailing david.ponder@us.army.mil or call (919) 485-9567.

Download the Flyer 

  02102012.Fayetteville_NC_copy.pdf (240.5 KiB, 37 hits)

After a rocket attack outside Nasiriyah, Iraq, shattered three bones in his spine, Kenneth Sargent’s doctors told him he’d spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Sixteen months later, he’s walking. And he wants to write a song about it.

Sargent’s phone is full of Prince hits. He likes Merle Haggard, too. But he doesn’t care whether his song is R&B or country. He just wants it to be about how America doesn’t understand its soldiers after a decade of war.

The 41-year-old Army staff sergeant was one of 11 veterans gathered at a plush hotel in this arid mountain town near Fort Carson last weekend to transpose their most difficult memories into music. The four-day camp was hosted by LifeQuest Transitions, a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit organization that helps veterans navigate the uncharted leap from the battlefield to civilian life — and one of the few doing it through the arts.

Read the full article.

Watch the video.