5 minute read
Women Veterans Interactive: Serving Those Who Served Our Country
VETERANS
Women Veterans Interactive:
Serving those who have served our country
BY SUE BALDANI
After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, and being medically discharged after an accident, Ginger Miller had a difficult time transitioning back into civilian life. Because she joined the military right out of high school she was unskilled for many employment opportunities.
“I did not transition well,” Miller said. Her husband, a Marine who was discharged before her, was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We ended up being homeless,” she added. “I knew no other female veterans. I was feeling down and out and ashamed of being homeless after serving my country. Even if I would’ve known where to look for help, I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to ask for it.”
Miller ended up working three jobs, raising two young sons, and going to school whenever she found the time. She eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in nonprofit and association management, and her life today is dramatically different. However, she never forgot those struggles and committed herself to making the transition smoother for other female veterans.
In 2009, she founded John 14.2 Inc., a nonprofit that focused on veterans who suffered from PTSD – “not realizing that I also had my own issues as a woman veteran,” she said.
Two years later, when Miller was a commissioner and chair of the outreach and education committee of the Maryland Commission for Women, she decided she wanted to do something specifically to help women like herself and founded Women Veterans Interactive under the umbrella of John 14.2. WVI grew so quickly that it became its own
RIGHT: Bonnie Tavolazzi, Senior Strategic Adviser, Echo Five Group and 2020 Veteran Employee of the Year. Photo courtesy Bonnie Tavolazzi. BELOW: Ginger Miller, front row, second from left, and the group of female veterans invited to tour actor Tyler Perry’s new studios. Photo courtesy Ginger Miller.
Veterans struggle to reintegrate into the community when returning home from tours abroad. Thankfully heroes our business community dedicate time and resources to making this reintegration process easier and to providing employment opportunities for those who served. On Tuesday, Aug. 31, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce will once again host the Distinguished Service Awards to honor these individuals, companies, and non-profit organizations for their service to veterans in the Greater Washington business community. We hope you’ll join us.
2020 Distinguished Service Award Winners:
Veteran-Owned Business of the Year:
• Emerging business: Echo Five Group • Maturing business: IT Veterans • Established business: HigherEchelon Inc. Veteran Employee of the Year: Bonnie Tavolazzi, Senior Strategic Adviser, Echo Five Group Veteran Service Organization of the Year: Boulder Crest Foundation Applications for the 2021 Distinguished Service Awards open on July 12 and close August 13 and are open to all. Visit novachamber.org/distinguished-service-awards/
nonprofit in 2018.
Miller recalled that in March 2012, she organized a women veterans empowerment and unification cruise, and more than 200 women veterans registered within 30 days. “That showed me that I wasn’t the only woman veteran who had struggled or was struggling.”
Miller knew the Veterans Administration was having a hard time reaching female veterans, so she provided a platform from which the VA could talk to women about its services. That gesture began a partnership between the nonprofit and the VA that continues to this day.
One of WVI’s programs, Operation Safety Net, helps women veterans with everything from security deposits and rent to healthy food. It also works to stop evictions and utility disconnections.
In addition, WVI’s workforce development programs help female veterans find employment. “For every three out of five women veterans that have issues with homelessness, their real issues are unemployment and underemployment.”
The struggles that female veterans have can be much more complex than their male counterparts. “A lot of corporations and foundations have funding and programs that support veterans and military spouses, but women veterans often fall through the cracks,” Miller said. “That’s why we’re here.”
The organization has now supported over 5,000 women veterans and has members in about 25 states. In 2018, when Miller was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Chamber member and WVI donor B3 Group was in the audience. “Small
businesses are some of our biggest supporters, and the B3 Group has made a commitment and has stuck to their commitment,” Miller said. “To have an ally like the B3 Group is amazing.”
Another supporter of WVI is actor and producer Tyler Perry, who donated $20,000 and gave a private tour – complete with swag bags – of his new studio to about 25 female veterans. The following year, he sent 150 t-shirts for WVI’s annual Women Veterans Leadership and Diversity Conference.
Miller was recently told her story about being a woman veteran who experienced homelessness for the Obama Presidency Oral History Project. Among many other awards, she received the White House Champion of Change Award for Woman Veterans in 2013.
And she isn’t done yet. The WVI’s new foundation launches this month and will build on the work Miller and her members have already done. It will have its own research department and provide annual data on women veterans.
“There’s no wrong door at WVI,” Miller said. “I don’t care if you’re homeless, if you’re hungry, or if you’re doing great. We’re here for everybody. For those who don’t need help, they can help their own communities by starting chapters. This is what makes us so special.”
