Moving the Needle for our Transitioning Military.

Over the years, specifically during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our nation has worked to improve the transition of our Service Members back into our communities. This call for action, prompted by Veteran homelessness, underemployment/unemployment and suicide gained support and strategies from several cabinet-level agencies.?Yellow Ribbon events continued to occur and the Department of Defense offers Transition Assistance Programs (TAP), an outcome-based and statutory program aimed at preparing transitioning service members for post military life. The Department of Labor recently launched their Off-Base Transition Training (OBTT) pilot program that affords the opportunity earned through service for Veterans, Veterans currently serving in the National Guard and Reserve, and their spouses to take control of their career through workshops to help meet their employment goals. These are just a few programs that our government has launched in order to better prepare our nation's warriors for their journey back into civilian life.?

One program that has vastly improved the transition is the Department of Defense (DOD) Skill Bridge Program. Although launched in 2011, we recently began our partnership in early 2022 and have already experienced great success both organizationally and for individual Veterans. This initiative provides Service Members with the opportunity to gain valuable civilian work experience before they leave active duty and is designed to help service members acquire new skills and knowledge that will help them transition into the civilian workforce.

This program also offers creative staffing solutions to companies and community based non-profit organizations. As we talk about finite resources to address what seem to be infinite problems, non-profit organizations continue to work to remain agile and find new ways to remove burden from the staff they can support. DOD Skill Bridge is a viable answer. Through this program, nonprofits can now acquire high quality individuals for their workplaces, and at times, add licensed professionals while also addressing competitive pay.

How it works

The DOD Skill Bridge Program is available to all service members who are within 180 days of transition. The program allows them to participate in internships, job shadowing, apprenticeships, and other similar programs with civilian employers. During this period, the individual is still serving as an active duty Service Member with their unit. This provides the opportunity for high functioning employees for companies and provides our Service Members a strong foundation for community re-integration. Many service members have spent years in the military and have developed skills that are unique to the military environment. However, these skills may not necessarily translate directly to the civilian workforce. The DOD Skill Bridge Program helps to fill this gap by providing service members with the opportunity to gain new skills that are more applicable to the civilian workforce.

Another benefit of the DOD Skill Bridge Program is that it helps service members to build connections with their communities. By participating in internships or other programs with civilian employers, service members have the opportunity to network with the community in which they will be moving, prior to their EAS date.

Proof of Concept

As an organization that provides Veteran facing programs while employing 65% Veterans and another 20% Military connected families, we know first-hand the benefit to having Veterans and service members on staff. With the majority of our Veteran staff experiencing their own difficulties in transition, we wanted to ensure that Veterans coming to our communities had the opportunity to transition IN them, not TO them. We began by talking about our own transition hurdles and used them as a guide to assist our incoming DOD Skill Bridge members. By placing a priority on community involvement, networking, and preparation, we observed a process that was like nothing we had seen before.

Our Skill Bridge participants spend their first week focusing on applying for VA benefits, with the direction and assistance of staff who have gone through the process. Ensuring that we are using our staff’s diversity in: Military Occupational Specialty, Branch of Service, and experience to the participant’s advantage. After connecting them to their own VA benefits (disability, healthcare, home loan, etc.) we assess their strengths and interests to determine the best program role for them. In remaining flexible, we create opportunities for participants to best use their talents, strengthen their resume with real world experience, and build on the core values they have embodied during their careers in military service.

The last month of a Skill Bridge participant’s journey is spent performing job duties with increased flexibility as it pertains to finding and securing employment and housing. We begin to lean on community connections (some that the participants have made and developed themselves, and some of our already existing relationships) to ensure that in the event they don’t stay within our organization, they will leave prepared and confident in their skills and successes.

Big Win

Our first Skill Bridge participant was a trauma nurse with the US Air Force. She had a desire to use our program to better serve the patients she will encounter in the civilian setting, and to better understand the resources available to populations she might serve. As her tenure in Skill Bridge and with VSC came to an end; through a connection with a major hospital system gained via our Department of Labor Employment partners, she accepted a job making well above the median livable wage. In addition, she believes her time as a Skill Bridge intern has made her a more effective nurse.??

‘As an Emergency Nurse with the US Air Force, I knew I would struggle finding a job after transitioning from Active Duty, so I was looking for a community experience and opportunity that would assist me with my transition. Through my journey with the DOD Skill Bridge program and Veterans Services of the Carolinas I gained invaluable insights that prepared me for my job as an ED Nurse, in addition building both personal and professional relationships. Not only was I able to work as an intake coordinator for their coordination team, but I was able to assist Veterans experiencing real needs, while providing real community solutions, while internalizing my own transition and needs.

I am grateful for this program and the opportunity to work with VSC, as it created a seamless transition from my military service and has made me conscious of the disparities that my ED patients may be facing outside of the hospital. I am more equipped to provide appropriate community resources to my patients because of my experience through VSC and successfully settling into this new chapter of my life.”

?-Heather Kosterman - USAF Veteran and ED Nurse with Novant Health

Stepping Stone

Another participants journey through this initiative is different but still results in success. Gabby, a US Army soldier, came to our Fayetteville office and worked on our new and innovative predictive analytics program. As she was participating in DOD SkillBridge, Gabby was also applying for grad school when she was accepted into a Masters of Social Work program at UNC Chapel Hill. As Gabby’s long term career goals have a clinical focus, we were able to offer Gabby a full time job as a Suicide Risk Screener for our new VA Suicide Prevention Program (SSG FOX). In this role Gabby administers mental health screenings to determine risk levels of veterans as it relates to suicide; this is accomplished using various screening assessments by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Gabby can now work and provide for her family and has the flexibility to obtain her Masters of Social Work, while gaining valuable work experience relevant to her field of study.

In Conclusion

In North Carolina alone there are over 150 SkillBridge providers that include 290 different program opportunities.?This?transition program improves overall health for our Veterans and our communities at large through community involvement and intentionality with our Veterans transition. To learn more about this invaluable program or to get involved please visit: https://skillbridge.osd.mil/

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