Vets Finally Get a Good Break

Posted by Marlene in Marlene's Feel Good Blog | 0 comments

“Here’s Something To Feel Good About Today!” This is a wonderful story of hope and new possibility for US Veterans. It’s easy to forget what these incredibly courageous people do for us. Now it can be our turn to give back something in return…. This article was forwarded to me today, I am sharing it with you with the prayer that you will pass it on to others who will offer assistance to this worthwhile and life saving endeavor for our fabulous Vets.

Here is the actual article:My partner ran into this story today, I felt such a strong positive reaction I was amazed. This is a story of good people, a never give up attitude and good luck come together to create an opportunity that has far reaching possibilities. We have offer our help and support to them. If you have any ideas, let us know how we can help these people. Usually, there are only two outcomes from a job interview: an offer of employment or rejection. For Jason Skerik – a disabled combat vet who served in Desert Storm – there was a third.

Jason Sherik cleans a home in San Francisco as part of the eco-vet service. The Dessert storm vet who lives with PTSD was able to get help starting his business from the Dept of Veterens Affairs.

“During the middle of the interview – it was with this young, energetic guy who was an independent Comcast contractor – I suddenly thought, ‘Why am I going to work for you? Why don’t I work for myself?’ ” Inspired by the thought, Skerik, 40, returned to his home in San Rafael and made a list of ideas. One of them stood out. “I decided to start a maid/janitorial service,” he said. “And I decided I would hire veterans.”

He named the company Eco-Vet, for its use of environmentally friendly cleaning products and those who would be wielding them. Skerik, who has struggled to find meaningful work since leaving the Army in 1992, realized he was excited about his prospects for the first time in a long while. He obtained the required business license along with a stack of green business cards imprinted with the motto “Veterans Serving You.” He posted an ad on Craigslist.

Soon, Eco-Vet had its first customer. “We were looking for a change,” said Tiburon resident Katherine Querard, who spotted Skerik’s online ad. “The vet thing was highly appealing. And, as Jason said to me, ‘We’re used to white-glove inspections: We know how to clean.’ ” The ad also attracted the attention of Russell Simmons, an 80-year-old Army veteran who lives in San Francisco. “I like it that you’re not just dealing with a service or something, you’re dealing with people who have been where you were and done what you have done,” he said. Something positive.

Until Skerik was diagnosed with PTSD, he said, what he mostly did was survive. For a while, he was homeless. “After I was diagnosed with PTSD, everything started to fall into place,” he said. Skerik said he grew stronger with the help of medical treatment and counseling from the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. His confidence returned and, along with it, a desire to do something positive with his life.

While the maid service part of the business is in motion, the janitorial piece has yet to take off. Skerik hopes to take advantage of his veteran status by bidding on contracts to clean state offices and buildings, a certain percentage of which are awarded to combat veteran-owned businesses. But first he needs financial help to buy the necessary cleaning equipment, including a van. For that, he turned to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans with a service-related disability rated at 10

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percent or higher are eligible to apply for help through the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education Program. While the program often helps veterans with expenses related to earning a college degree or specialized vocational training, it may also assist those who, like Skerik, want to start their own businesses. “Our commitment is to work closely with the veteran, to provide information and resources so they’re not alone,” said Joe Warner, vocational rehab specialist with the VA Regional Office in Oakland.

“There’s life beyond the service, and we want them to have the best possible chance.” Currently, he said, there are 2,700 veterans in the program at the Northern California office in Oakland. After meeting with a vocational rehabilitation specialist, Skerik was assigned to a business mentor at SCORE, a nonprofit group that provides free online and in-person counseling services to those in startup or struggling businesses. Business plan “Most of us here have gray hair,” said Hal Guthart, Skerik’s counselor at SCORE. “We’re just do-gooders. It’s our way of helping young people get started.”

Relying on Guthart’s mentoring, Skerik will write a business plan for Eco-Vet and submit it to the VA for evaluation. After meeting with Skerik, Guthart said he was impressed. “This is a gentleman who doesn’t have to work,” he said. “He’s choosing to enrich his life and the lives of other veterans by starting up his own business. I think it’s an outstanding idea.” While the VA offers a number of programs to help servicemen and women make the transition to civilian life, there is a growing list of private nonprofit resources as well.

One of them is Project Hired, which recently hosted its Wounded Warrior Workforce Conference and Career Fair at Yahoo’s headquarters in Sunnyvale. Designed to educate businesses about the advantages of hiring veterans and bring the two groups together for mutual benefit, the event attracted about 40 corporate employers and 50 veterans. The conference was such a success, said executive director Gwen Ford, that plans are in motion to hold another one in Monterey in June.

Hiring programs: “These are highly skilled, highly disciplined people,” said Ford. “They bring a lot to the table.” The key to addressing the unemployment rate for veterans, which stands at 15.2 percent, Ford said, is for more companies to do what firms such as Yahoo, Wells Fargo, Google and others have done – create their own veteran hiring programs. “I think it is important for people to understand that we need to come together as a society to support these veterans, whether they want to start their own businesses or find a job,” he said. For Skerik, and others like him, the results of that support can be dramatic and far-reaching. “I had gotten to the point where I thought I was not gonna be able to dream and have goals, that it was past me,” said Skerik. “This has put hope back in my life, that I have a future ahead of me.” Job resources for veterans

Co-founder Marlene Moore Gordon

VA Medical Center, San Francisco, (415) 221-4810, www.sanfrancisco.va.gov VA Oakland Regional Office, (800) 827-1000, www.vba.va.gov/ro/oakland California Disabled Veterans Business Alliance, (916) 446-3510, www.cadvbe.org UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans With Disabilities, (310) 794-6346, www.anderson.ucla.edu/x20079.xml Project Hired Wounded Warrior Workforce, (408) 557-0880, www.projecthired.org/ttw.html E-mail Dana Perrigan at business@sfchronicle.com. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/16/BUCH1I8FV5.DTL#ixzz1IUuGrAXh “Find Something To Feel Good About Everyday!”