The Midtown Development Corporation, a for profit business, in partnership with the National Veterans Transition Services, Inc. (NVTSI) aka REBOOT, a sister 501(c)(3) organization, requests funding to support the development and growth of the Kansas City Center for Military Veterans Reintegration (CMVR) to be located in the Troost Village (see the above fly through). Key components of the CMVR have been separately validated by NVTSI and alliance partners for the past ten years. Designed as a joint public-private partnership and a community-led military-to-civilian reintegration center for transitioning Military, Veterans and Spouses, the CMVR’s portfolio of services is described in https://vcmvr.nvtsi.org. The CMVR will serve as a portal and systems integrator, in order to facilitate access to a family of services.
We are seeking $50,000 in funding from ten (10) investors in order to support our capital campaign to raise $500,000 for programming, operation and administration, which funding will allow the CMVR to become financially independent within two years. Because the CMVR business model can be easily replicated throughout the U.S., it will also serve as a national template.
THE CHALLENGE: According to the 2019 GAO study submitted to Congress, about 200,000 service members annually embark upon the transition from active military duty to civilian life. The Department of Defense estimates that 1,300 military service members, spouses, and children transition to civilian life every day, bringing our total annual impacted population to 475,000. For many veterans, transitioning to civilian life is a difficult process—not just a vocational change but a multi-faceted and monumental life shift. Many of our veteran heroes return home requiring unique support to ensure they successfully adapt to civilian life. Veterans report widespread prevalence of problems in social functioning, including difficulties in participating in community activities, challenges in relating to spouses, and staying employed. Symptomatic of the reintegration problems are veteran incarceration, and homeless and suicide rates twice as high as those among the general population.
THE NEED: The need exists for an off-base, community-led, reintegration center to formally address reintegration issues at their root cause and prepare transitioning and former military members for community reentry, as envisioned in the Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer William “Bill” Mulder (Ret) Transition Improvement Act of 2019 (H.R. 2326).
The Pew Research Center reports that about half of the veterans who served post 9/11 experienced difficulty adjusting to civilian life. A series of studies conducted by USC’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families (CIR) show that the majority of veterans look favorably on their military experience, yet the majority also report having difficulty adjusting to civilian life, which can lead to larger problems such as joblessness, homelessness and untreated mental health conditions. And even though veterans have access to a vast array of resources to help them navigate their post-military careers and life, most of the resources work in silos and rarely integrate their services to provide comprehensive support. The result? Veterans and families face an energy-draining transition fretted with countless missteps. Most communities across America lack a robust and cost effective reintegration process to ease the veteran’s return home.
THE SOLUTION: With H.R. 2326 serving as a signal of impending government policy changes, VFW Post 2591 in partnership with NVTSI has launched the Sedalia Center for Military Veterans Reintegration (CMVR). The CMVR is an industry-driven, community-led initiative to REBOOT the lives and careers of transitioning service members and veterans by actively integrating them back into the civilian population, starting with an evidence-based reverse-boot camp – the REBOOT Workshop.
The REBOOT Workshop also serves as triage, helping to anticipate community resources needed for effective veteran and military spouse reintegration. For example, roughly 25% of transitioning service members, and a higher percentage of military spouses, historically have elected to become self-employed. Sharing data about REBOOT graduates who would like to become self-employed would allow local SBA offices, business schools and lending institutions, among other organizations, prepare for and benefit from this knowledge. Additionally, NVTSI has introduced and tested innovative Artificial Intelligence-based smart apps to streamline employee recruitment and job placement to support local employers. As part of the partnership with each community, CMVR’s website invites employers to advertise job openings.
Overall, the CMVR will leverage local resources across seven key transition domains: education, employment and career, living situation, personal effectiveness/wellbeing, and community-life functioning. Each domain will be coordinated with CMVR community members who have been vetted and offer specific services in order to ensure timely and efficient delivery. The mission of the CMVR is to enhance the lives and careers of veterans and their families and to promote Kansas City as one of the best places for veterans to live.*
In closing I leave you with a statement from the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman’s Office ofReintegration: Veterans / Families / Communities, of September 2015:
“As a nation, we cannot meet our full potential in reintegrating veterans and their families back into civilian society unless the military, government, non-profits, veteran-serving organizations, and private partners collaborate around a mutual agenda and partner to address the challenges veterans face in reintegration.”
Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman’s Office of
Reintegration: Veterans / Families / Communities, of September 2015
Our point of contact for more information is Maurice D. Wilson, MCPO, USN (Ret), President/National Executive Director, who can be reached at 619-602-2577, or via email at Maurice@nvtsi.org.
Sincerely,
Jim Wong, Chairman, National Veterans Transition Services, Inc. aka REBOOT
