Staff Members from U.S. Vets Long Beach
“We’re in this together, we’re all dedicated to getting veterans employed and promoting supportive practices in the workplace. There is no other venue or opportunity for this type of collaboration to happen. It’s truly unique."
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) October 21, 2016
On October 13- 14, 2016, Swords to Plowshares hosted a two-day conference in San Francisco, California for our partners in the California and Texas Veteran Employment Collaborative. The dual-state Employment Collaborative is funded by the Walmart Foundation and consists of 10 organizations from California and 4 from Texas that provide employment and job training services for veterans, and wrap around care to remove barriers to successful employment and increase veterans’ overall health and economic stability.
This two-day conference brought nearly three dozen employment service professionals and provided training through technical assistance workshops:
- Providing employment services to veterans, leveraging employment and training models and resources
- Leveraging Federal and State employment initiatives with representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor and the California Department of Veterans Affairs
- Round table discussion on challenges and best practices in employment services
- Measuring impact through program evaluation
- Effective fundraising and leadership for program sustainability
This two-day conference gave us the opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise for reaching, engaging, and increasing successful employment outcomes for underserved veterans; establish best practices for serving veterans and collecting program data to inform program delivery, and leverage our knowledge of building sustainable programs. “We can get lost in the day-to-day work of serving veterans, and it’s great to come together and learn from one another, promote best practices, and continue our partnership,” says Megan Zottarelli, Assistant Director of the Institute for Veteran Policy at Swords to Plowshares and grant administrator for this project. “We’re in this together, we’re all dedicated to getting veterans employed and promoting supportive practices in the workplace. There is no other venue or opportunity for this type of collaboration to happen. It’s truly unique.”
The overall goals of the dual-state Employment Collaborative are to help veterans prepare for, obtain and retain gainful employment and to increase veterans’ overall health, economic stability and ability to successfully transition to civilian life.
About Swords to Plowshares:
Founded in 1974, Swords to Plowshares is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides case management, mental health assessment and referral, rapid re-housing and eviction prevention services, employment and training, supportive housing, and legal benefits assistance for low-income, homeless and at-risk veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area. Swords to Plowshares promotes and protects the rights of veterans through advocacy, public education, and partnerships with local, state and national entities. Learn more about the work of Swords to Plowshares, and ways in which you can help, by visiting our website at http://www.stp-sf.org.
About Philanthropy at Walmart
By using our strengths to help others, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation create opportunities for people to live better every day. We have stores in 28 countries, employing more than 2.2 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. We are helping people live better by accelerating upward job mobility and economic development for the retail workforce; addressing hunger and making healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong communities where we operate and inspiring our associates to give back. Whether it is helping to lead the fight against hunger in the United States with $2 billion in cash and in-kind donations or supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment through a series of grants totaling $10 million to the Women in Factories training program in Bangladesh, China, India and Central America, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are not only working to tackle key social issues, we are also collaborating with others to inspire solutions for long-lasting systemic change. To learn more about Walmart’s giving, visit http://www.foundation.walmart.com.