Please Make a Gift to Support the Coming Home™ Project's Work
As the days get shorter and the end of the year approaches, what lights your path? If you value what the Coming Home Project offers, or if it has touched your life, I ask you to follow through and support the transformative work we do. Our programs literally depend on your generosity. The best way right now to support us is to make a personally significant financial contribution. You can also recommend and forward this newsletter to like-minded friends, family or colleagues and encourage them to make a gift. You can volunteer your skills and energy. We need your support to continue providing programs that touch thousands of lives and are recognized nationally as best practices and innovative models for reintegration.
My Blog on Huffington Post
Spread the word: Like us on Facebook, Tweet it, Become a fan, Post it on your Facebook or Google+ page, Make a comment on HuffPo and create a conversation. It's a painless way to help right now. Let others know and invite their participation. Thanks.
Beautiful Weekend, Beautiful Cause
Find - and forget - yourself at Esalen this weekend. Join Joe in beautiful Big Sur, CA for his new workshop, Partners in Integration: Spiritual Practice and Emotional Growth. With good food, healing hot springs, and valuable lessons on how to balance the tides of emotion and spirituality, this will be an experience you won't want to miss. Plus, proceeds will benefit Coming Home™ Project programs for veterans and their families. There's still space available, but it's filling up fast. Take a look at the flyer and register here.
The Year Ahead
It's only November, but Coming Home's™ 2012 calendar is already filling up with great programs and events. Starting in January, we'll be holding a series of monthly workshops that will address important issues ranging from employment and education, to public service and creative expression. The first in this series will be the Coming Home™ Veterans Toolkit on January 28th, a one-day event bringing together wellness and stress management practices with expert educational and career resources. The workshop will be the optimal place for veterans who have big questions about what to do next, and how to get there. We'll be following up with another Veterans Toolkit in late February as well. In March Coming Home™ will hold a Serve & Share event; a day for veterans and civilians to come together to participate in public service activities, and then share their experiences through cross-cultural dialogue. Also on our calendar are several Equine workshops, which will build upon the success we had with November's Equine event. All in all, these one-day, monthly workshops are an opportunity for Coming Home™ to speak to specific issues of interest to veterans and their families within a smaller, more regional format. We'll only be able to make these workshops happen with your help.
Recent Programs
November was a great month for Coming Home™. We had two great events: our Veterans Day benefit, and our Equine-Assisted Wellness Workshop. Thanks to all who were involved. The benefit featured an excellent concert by Nell Robinson, as well as an art workshop and art auction. The Equine workshop, held in the gorgeous Marin Headlands, saw veterans from all eras gather for a day of healing and connecting with horses and one another. We plan on having many more Equine workshops in 2012.
NCAA "Carrier Classic"
The USS Carl Vinson has seen a lot. It launched the first airstrikes of Operation Enduring Freedom, it supplied aid to earthquake victims in Haiti, and it was famously the ship that buried Osama Bin Laden at sea. Now the USS Carl Vinson has another feature to add to its resume: basketball arena. On Veterans Day the NCAA held the "Carrier Classic" on top of this 101,000-ton aircraft carrier, in a match between college basketball giants North Carolina and Michigan State. Along with basketball fans Magic Johnson and President Obama, hundreds of men and women in uniform packed the stands to watch some hoops and join in this momentous - and very creative - salute to military service. Lots of work went into making the game happen; it's not easy turning a war ship into a basketball court. But it all paid off in a big "Thank You" to American veterans and service members everywhere. Read more about it on the White House Blog.
A Community of Providers
On November 2, I enjoyed participating in A Better Welcome Home: Transformative Models to Support Veterans and their Families, hosted by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. Thirty speakers shared their ideas, their presentations were filmed, and the DVD of the day will be distributed to all the municipalities throughout the country. I also had the pleasure of meeting with the staff of the Home Base Program, a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital that provides top-flight clinical care to veterans with post-traumatic stress and/or traumatic brain injury, support for their families, research and education. Finally I enjoyed meeting with the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine and learning about their exciting research on the far-reaching healing impacts of the "relaxation response," which is so critical in helping transform traumatic stress.
Resources
Check out these new websites that connect veterans with helpful resources, as well as with other veterans.
Google for Veterans: a comprehensive network for veterans featuring job resources, video sharing, and social media technology.
The NRD's Veterans Job Bank: an ever-growing vault of job listings specifically targeted at veterans and their skill sets.
American Corporate Partners' AdvisorNet: linking business experts with veterans and their families for career success.
Veteran Central: a new online community for vets to meet other vets and access helpful employment and health resources.
Fidelis: connecting military personnel with education and training services.
ArmedZilla: a new social networking platform for vets.
Also, check out these great items featuring advisory committee member Cam Ritchie:
"What Can The Rest of Us Do to Help Prevent Military Suicides?"
"Vets: Homeless for Thanksgiving"
"Does Fear of Getting Mental-Health Help Drive Up Suicide in the Military?"
"Why Are There So Many Military Suicides?"
Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated With Suicides of Army Soldiers 2001-2009
Finally, some great articles on the psychological issues related to war:
Military Reviews All Aspects of Suicide-Prevention Efforts
Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide
CIR Field Note: Fighting a War Created at Home
Sincerely,
Joseph Bobrow
Founder
with Jim Hatzopoulos
Coming Home™ Project