Supporting Tennessee Veterans, Every Day of the Year

Nov 10, 2013 at 08:25 pm by bryan


The men and women in Tennessee who have served in the military are being honored on this Veterans Day, but making sure vets in the state have the support they need is happening every week of the year. WGNS' John Michaelson explains...

 

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Many veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are finding the move back into civilian life can present barriers, but there is help and it's year-round, not just on Veterans Day. Yvette Martinez with the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs says one of the programs that's proving to be successful is "Paychecks for Patriots," which held its first job fair last year. "We saw more than 2,000 veterans hired just within that one statewide event. That event is now spreading across the country. We've had our second one this year. We had more employers involved and the employers we're working with, they see the value of veterans." Nationally, the unemployment rate for the youngest vets, between ages 18 and 24, has been dropping, but is still at about 20-percent. Martinez says another part of the effort includes a Web-based tool from the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs that will launch this month, linking vets with schools and training. "Every educational resource that's in the area, whether it's private, public or technical schools, will now be at all of our outreaches because that is another hurdle. Many of our veterans, especially our enlisted veterans, went into the military straight out of high school, so we're also becoming a one-stop-shop for educational resources." There are 525-thousand veterans who currently call Tennessee home.

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