Swords to Plowshares Opens New Job Office

Employment, Support, Veterans No Responses »
Feb 182009

The San Francisco-based organization that has championed the transition of many veterans from military to civilian life has just opened an office across the Bay in Oakland that will concentrate on job-training and assistance.

As described in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle,

“We’re finding that larger numbers of these vets are coming back not so much to San Francisco proper,” said Dave Lopez, director of the organization’s jobs program. “I would say the majority are coming back to the East Bay, at least the ones we’re seeing in the employment and training unit.”

The year ending last September saw an average of 23 vets a month seeking job help from the group, up from nine vets a month before that. In the last month, there were 39, Lopez said.

“Most of the ones we’re seeing are also younger aged,” Lopez said. The bulk of them are between 21 and 26, he said, and have limited job skills because they enlisted soon after leaving school.

The new Swords to Plowshares center opened earlier this month at 1433 Webster St. in downtown Oakland. The two staffers, Gulf War vet Ken Crawford and Vietnam War vet Eric Nichols, occupy a space amid a suite of offices housing other nonprofit organizations that can be partners, Lopez said.

Swords to Plowshares gets money from federal and state grants, as well as from private foundations, to pay for training. It also helps arrange for temporary housing and part time employment while the veterans are attending training courses, and helps with resumes and transportation to interviews.

The new Swords to Plowshares employment and training office can be reached at (510) 891-8773. The organization’s main office in San Francisco can be reached at (415) 252-4788.

For more info: swords-to-plowshares.org

Posted by admin at 3:16 pm

An employment and training office for Bay Area vets

Education, Employment, Transition, Veterans No Responses »
Nov 212008

Swords to Plowshares announced this week its plans to open an Oakland-based facility that “will include one-on-one employment counseling, interview coaching and assistance with job search and costs.” See the local ABC-TV video story here.

A San Francisco-based group has announced plans to open an employment and training office for Bay Area veterans. “We are opening this new satellite office in Oakland to make it easier for veterans to access veteran-specific employment and training services in their community,” explained Amy N. Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veteran Project for the “Swords to Plowshares” veteran support organization.

“We see a growing number of veterans in the East Bay, and we want to make employment and training services as convenient and accessible as possible,” she said.

The services offered at the Oakland office will include one-on-one employment counseling, interview coaching and assistance with job search and costs. The new office also will reach out to employers in the community and secure interviews for clients.

“We also hope to have our other service departments visit that office periodically to provide help with GI Bill and [Veterans Affairs Department] benefits,” Fairweather said.

Swords to Plowshares helps veterans with health and social services, transitional and permanent housing, employment and training and through its Iraq Veteran Project.

“We launched the Iraq Veteran Project in 2005 to better meet the needs of a new and unique population of post-9/11 veterans,” Fairweather said. The Iraq Veteran Project staff provides resources and referrals to veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and their families, including help with navigating educational benefits, accessing VA care and finding veterans services where they live, she added.

Michael Ergo, a former Marine sergeant, recently used the group’s employment training program to complete a paralegal certificate course at San Francisco State University.

“When I went in to see them, I asked if they had any legal training programs to put me in,” Ergo said. “They found the paralegal program within an hour. I was enrolled within a week. Swords to Plowshares definitely care about their clients. I got the impression that they were eager to help me and did not consider it a burden to serve me.”

A handful of Vietnam veterans established Swords to Plowshares in 1974. Today, a staff of 85 helps veterans with transitional and supportive housing, mental health care, employment and training, legal services and case management.

In additional to its local services, Swords to Plowshares now provides legal representation for VA claims and discharge review services to post-9/11 veterans regardless of where they live. The group also has developed military and veteran cultural competency training for clinicians and first responders to give them a basic understanding of resources and issues.

“Of course, we continue to provide our local services to veterans of all eras, but hope that by intervening as soon as possible, we will prevent this new generation of combat veterans from some of the suffering their chronically homeless predecessors continue to endure,” Fairweather said.

Posted by admin at 6:33 pm

Vets' Long Wait to Find Jobs

Agriculture, Employment, Veterans 1 Response »
Nov 182008

A survey by CareerBuilder.com found that almost one in five returning veterans took at least 6 months to find a job. Nearly one in ten took longer than a year.

One-in-five veterans believe that the biggest challenge to getting hired for a civilian position is employers’ inability to understand how military skills can fulfill qualifications for civilian positions. Veterans also point to a lack of a college degree, a low number of jobs in their area and an inexperience with civilian job interviewing as other reasons they feel they aren’t finding

employment.

CareerBuilder does not currently carry much in the way of agricultural job possibilities for vets. That’s where FVC is beginning to build its capacity. As Michael O’Gorman said, in an article describing our recent benefit in Davenport, CA,

We’re helping veterans link up with a healing and productive place after their service. What we see here is a perfectly symbiotic relationship. The farming community needs these young workers and the economy is teaching us that a career in re-strengthening our agricultural production is the safest job.

Posted by admin at 5:03 pm

Foreclosures Hit Vets

Employment, Support, Veterans No Responses »
Nov 032008

An article in the Kansas City Star, republished on the Truthout site, describes the additional hardship being experienced by veterans already struggling with disabilities and difficulties holding on to jobs in a downward spiralling economy.

Although solid numbers on veteran foreclosures are not available, RealtyTrac, a Web site that follows foreclosures nationwide, reported earlier this year that areas with large numbers of military personnel have foreclosures at a rate four times the national average.

For some of the veterans, like Wilson, disability is a major factor. But even veterans without disabilities are having trouble for a variety of reasons: unemployment and repeated calls to duty, frequent relocations that limit the chance to build equity, and low pay for active service members.

Additionally, many military families were targeted by subprime mortgage sellers that opened offices near bases, leaving the families paying higher interest rates and more loan fees.

“They either can’t make a rent payment or mortgage payment, or they’re losing their car, or at least the threat is there,” said Shari Grewe, a transition patient advocate at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center for veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. She deals with about 35 veterans a day who are having trouble making payments, among other problems.

Posted by admin at 1:27 pm Tagged with:

FVC featured in Bay Area news

Employment, Press, Veterans No Responses »
Sep 242008

Following the benefit dinner, we’ve had two major local newspapers publish stories about the Farmer-Veteran Coalition project.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat published an article titled “Farming helps veterans ease back into civilian life.”

The San Francisco Chronicle then published an article titled “Food Conscious: Farmers Recruit Combat Veterans.”

The text of these articles can also be found here on this site.

Posted by admin at 12:04 pm Tagged with:

Swords to Plowshares holds vet job fair in San Francisco

Employment, Transition No Responses »
Sep 112008

The non-profit organization Swords to Plowshares, known for working primarily with veterans who are homeless, or have drug or alcohol problems, sponsored its first job fair Tuesday (9/9) in its home city of San Francisco.

The event, held at the War Memorial building across from City Hall, attracted “about 100″ veterans, mostly from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dave Lopez, director of training and employment services for Swords, said there’s a great need for employment programs for veterans, considering the multitudes who are getting discharges after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, or generally in the “Global War on Terror,” also known as “GWOT.”

“Because of the kind of work that Swords does, we felt it was time to step up to the plate,” Lopez said. “We went around and asked a bunch of employers to come here to talk to the vets, and no one said no.”

Lopez said a lot of veterans don’t realize the importance of the job skills they learned in the military.

“It pains me to talk to some young guy who says, ‘I was just a grunt,’ ” he said. “Even as a grunt, you learned about leadership and working as a team. You have some very good skills that employers are looking for.”

There were 30 employers represented at the fair, most of them being police departments and businesses specializing in security or construction. In the future, FVC plans to be present at many such job fairs, offering alternative vocations in the food and agriculture industries.

In the S.F. Chronicle article, Sean Scharf, a Marine veteran of two tours in Iraq, described the difficulties that many veterans encounter in adjusting to jobs as civilians, saying that they tend to get frustrated before settling into the new rhythm of their new vocations, and return to the military where they feel more accepted and comfortable.

“That’s when you have to call your buddy so he can remind you of all the reasons you got out to begin with,” he said.

The Farmer-Veteran Coalition, hope that many vets will find that the working environments of the food and agriculture vocations will provide rewards and motivations that will offset some of the discomfort found in current job offerings.

Posted by admin at 1:10 pm Tagged with:

Small Farms as Working Business - One Model

Agriculture, Employment, Farms No Responses »
Aug 272008

Can starting a small farm as a non-expert farmer provide enough financial support to justify your effort? That seems like a good question for a vet looking for a lifelong post-military vocation.

Recently, a New York Times reporter who is a member of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable delivery service was assigned to do a deeper study of this growning economic/farming model. His article provides some facts and figures about one New York area farm that is succeeding.

Honey Brook, located in northern New Jersey, is one of the largest and most successful CSAs in the nation. Since 1990, the number of CSAs has jumped from 50 to more than 2,000. Many of them in the New York area have waiting lists for members. The owners of Honey Brook are Jim Kinsel, 50 and his wife, Sherry Dudas, 44. Kinsel used to work for an insurance company and his wife worked for the state agriculture department.They were not raised nor formally trained as farmers.

The farm started small, in 1991, with Mr. Kinsel farming 3.5 acres for 50 local families. After 9/11, membership boomed. Ms. Dudas worked to broaden the farm’s appeal.

Honey Brook sells shares to customers, in exchange for which they get a box of vegetables every week through the growing season, from June through November. The price of a share depends on whether the boxes are delivered to the home or picked up at the farm. Members can also pick their own, during harvest season.

In 2008, the farm sold out, with 2,313 shares, 525 of them delivered. Members paid $600 for delivery of a box share, $604 for a family-size farm pickup, and $358 for an individual share, also picked up at the farm. Ms. Dudas described the price as “a good value,” and said that in 2006 (the most recent calculation) members paying $528 for a family share received the equivalent of produce that would have cost $1,861 at a nearby Whole Foods Market.

Honey Brook first became profitable in 2001 and now provides Kinsey and Dudas with a good living. It was hard work. It took time to develop. It’s located in an affluent region. But it has proven successful.

“Wholesaling for a farm this size is no longer viable, even for an organic farm, but a C.S.A. can work,” Mr. Kinsel said. “We have a customer base who’s affluent and well educated, and New Jersey has shown a commitment to farmland preservation.”

Posted by admin at 6:16 pm Tagged with:

New Website Informs Employers About Hiring Vets

Employment, Support, Transition No Responses »
Aug 202008

At long last, the U.S. government is acknowledging the difficult job situation of 600,000 veterans of the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq by providing guidance to potential employers for hiring vets with post-traumatic stress syndrom (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). America’s Heroes at Work has two main subsections

Learn How to Help Employees with TBI/PTSD Succeed, which informs employers how they can “play a vital role in the recovery and rehabilitation of people with TBI and/or PTSD.”

Learn How to Hire a Veteran provides employers with resources to help them recruit, hire and retain qualified veteran employees.

Posted by admin at 5:20 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Steep job slope for disabled vets

Education, Employment, Support, Transition No Responses »
Jul 072008

The latest statistics from Department of Veterans Affairs tell us there are a total of about 869,000 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about 225,00 are collecting disability benefits. Paul Rieckhoff, executive director with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, confirms our logic that,“Disabled Veterans have a lot of unique challenges and they have a hard time finding jobs.” He estimates from his 100,000 members that the jobless rate is in double digits with no sign of relief in sight.

The Department of Labor reports – according to Veterans Today – that “only 81.8 percent of disabled Iraq and Afghanistan vets are active job holders or jobseekers compared with 90.7 percent of veterans without a disability.” Of course, some disabled vets will be unable to work because of the nature of their disabilities, but many others don’t know where to turn for training and employment.

Ryan Kules of The Wounded Warrior Project – who lost and arm and a leg in Iraq – says that many wounded vets have great potential to be productive workers. “There are jobs they thought they’d never be able to do, and these things need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. But with help like special software, or just a bit more time to do things, they can go back to work.”

The agricultural job market includes many roles that can be filled by disabled vets, from planning to marketing and distribution of products. FVC fully intends to develop these opportunities.

Posted by admin at 2:17 pm

Growing produce, training vets in SoCal

Agriculture, Education, Employment, Farms, Organic, Support, Transition No Responses »
Jun 182008

Michael O\'Gorman of FVC and ColinSergeant Colin Archipley, a former Marine, has established a small, innovative farming operation in southern California. At Archi’s Acres , Colin and his wife, Karen, grow produce utilizing sustainable agricultural methods that require the minimum of water, applying techniques pioneered in water-challenged areas such as Israel and Australia. Given its location in Escondido, California, where water shortages and rationing are becoming the rule, Colin (seen in this photo with Michael O’Gorman of FVC) is leading the way in establishing appropriate agricultural practices in the face of global warming.

The other distinguishing feature of Archi’s Acres is its open offer to provide education and hands-on training in produce farming to military veterans.

As a former Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq, Sergeant Archipley’s infantry position gave him the teaching experience and tools necessary to instill confidence and work side-by-side with fellow veterans who are returning to the workforce. He understands the structure veterans are comfortable with and how to manage the demands of civilian life.

As the program is described:

Archi’s Acres offers programs targeted to veterans who may be disabled or who are interested in returning to the work force in the agricultural industry. We coordinate with the Compensated Work Therapy/Veterans Industries (VI/CWT) program. Our Organic Gardening course offers trainees a full range of learning experiences that include hands on training and text book learning. Course work includes produce production, from seeds to the end user, and sales channels from wholesalers and retailers to the farmer’s market.

Posted by admin at 7:29 am Tagged with: , ,
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