The second installment of our ChapsCon series (Sponsored by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina); entitled “Homes for the Brave;” focused on identifying community, policy, financial, & collaborative solutions to combating homelessness and the socio-economic displacement of our nation’s most vulnerable communities; particularly recently transitioned service-members, female veterans, service-disabled heroes, and children.
Homelessness and socio-economic displacement within our military community is one of our nation’s most disheartening truths. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs calculates “that about 12% of the adult homeless population are veterans; the majority of which suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders.” Approximately 9% are between the ages of 18 and 30, and 41% are service-members of the Iraq and Afghanistan generation. It has been calculated that nearly 1.4 million other veterans, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.
The goal of our “Homes for the Brave” summit was to create an intellectual environment where social, community, philanthropic, and federal organizations can explore the kinds of partnerships that would expand their capability to serve the needs and interests of our nation’s displaced. The 2-day event not only brought national leaders in public policy, research, and academia to discuss ways to improve best practices, but also served as the platform through which national charities, community organizations, health centers, military leadership, and funding organizations were able to:
Lastly, CNN Communications extended us permission to feature videos and personal accounts captured through their award-nominated web-series. In March of 2014, CNN Digital published a docu-series about suicides among military family members, entitled “The Uncounted” (created by Ashley Fantz and Nick Scott). In the summer of 2014 (at the urging of military family groups) a report was given to Congress on what it would take to track suicides of military-service family members. “The Uncounted” captures the experiences of these families, and provides an intimate portrait of their stories; told through the eyes of siblings, spouses, parents, and children.
ChampsCon™ is an independent conference, and a component of eMerging Entrepreneurs' “Economic Advancement project.” ISBN-13: 978-1441434227 | ISBN-10: 1441434224. © 2014. This program in no way suggests partnerships with any other federal program or initiative. Parallax Images courtesy of eMerging Entrepreneurs, Inc. Additional images courtesy of Getty Images and other internet sources. All Rights Reserved. Website Powered by the IbL Media Group.
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