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Greetings!
November, with its celebration of Veterans Day and its designation as National Military Family Month, is the perfect time to honor our country's veterans and military families.
We thank you for your continued support of our men and women in service, and their families, who sacrifice so much.
We are proud to have so much exciting news to share with you.
Take care,
Barbara Van Dahlen, Ph.D.
Founder & President
Give an Hour™ |
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 Give an Hour™ Joins ServiceNation to Launch MISSION SERVE
In honor of Veterans Day, Give an Hour™ joined ServiceNation and more
than 50 civilian and military service organizations to launch MISSION SERVE: Forging a Continuum of
Service. The initiative will activate citizens engaged in volunteer and
military service across America to more closely coordinate our civilian and
military communities, enabling each to strengthen the other and, ultimately, to
strengthen our nation.
First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, both strong
advocates for military families and the role of service in advancing our nation, inaugurated MISSION SERVE at
George Washington University in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day. Indeed, both
women recognize the vital role that service organizations like Give an Hour™ play in engaging
the millions of veterans, service members, and their families on the homefront.
Likewise, MISSION SERVE will provide opportunities to Americans who
are eager to serve alongside service members and their families.
The First Lady and Dr. Biden were joined at the
ceremony by MTV News Correspondent Sway Calloway, the Student Veterans of
America, and Blue Star Families, evidence that all Americans are at the
frontlines of volunteerism.
Alma J. Powell, chair
of America's Promise Alliance and wife of General (ret.) Colin Powell, received the first annual
ServiceNation Award for Excellence in Military and Civilian Service for her lifetime
of service to children, communities, and country.
The 36 initiatives forged by more than 50 service
organizations across the country as part of MISSION
SERVE will more closely integrate service to country with service to
community, helping grow the service movement that is critical to America's
future success. Give an Hour™ is proud to do our part in forging this continuum of service. Our partners: Big Brothers Big Sisters + Give an
Hour™ Give an Hour™ therapists are connected to the
Big Brothers Big Sisters nationwide network of agencies. The Give an Hour™
volunteers agree to serve as roving mental health consultants for BBBS agencies, consulting with BBBS agency heads on mental health issues and providing
services ranging from offering referrals to counseling "Bigs," "Littles," and agency and school-district staff and parents.
American Red Cross + Give an
Hour™
The American Red Cross's Service to the Armed
Forces has an extensive network of disaster-relief trauma care specialists who
are trained to work with military personnel and their families. With this
partnership, these Red Cross specialists provide Give an Hour™ volunteers with
resources and training related to military culture and
language. Additionally, trauma care
specialists within the American Red Cross network are given a direct pipeline to
joining the Give an Hour™ network of mental health
providers.
National Organization on Disability + Give an
Hour™
This partnership assists
wounded warriors as they transition back to jobs within their communities. In
addition, it provides mental health consultants to the National Organization on
Disability's pilot program with the Army's AW2 Wounded Warrior
program.
AARP Create the Good + Give an
Hour™
AARP and Give an Hour™ have created a toolkit
for individuals across the country, who are interested in helping military
personnel and their families. These toolkits will enable volunteers to connect
with military families to offer a helping hand. A small gesture of support can
make a world of difference. The toolkit offers a resource list of organizations
that help to support military personnel and their families.
Student Veterans of America + Give an Hour™
Give
an Hour™ will engage its providers to serve as consultants at SVA sites
around the country. By conducting trainings, advising SVA chapters on best
practices, connecting providers with those in need, and enhancing awareness
among various campus populations of the challenges facing our returning
veterans and their families, GAH will enhance the capacity of these SVA
chapters and university communities to provide high-quality support services to
those who have given so much.
Operation Homefront + Give an
Hour™
Operation Homefront and Give an Hour™ are
partnering to offer free mental health services to military personnel and their
families provided by Give an Hour™. Through this partnership, Operation Homefront
works closely with Give an Hour™ to refer clients to Give an Hour™ providers who
will offer mental health resources to military families during this critical
time of need.
Folds of Honor + Give an Hour™
Folds of Honor provides scholarships to
family members of military members who have died or been disabled in service.
Through this partnership, Give an Hour™ offers free mental health services and
support to scholarship recipients.
Bowie State University + Give an
Hour™
Through this partnership, Give an Hour™
providers help train Bowie State University social service students who work
with the minority military community.
Postpartum Support International + Give an
Hour™
Through this partnership,
Postpartum Support International offers training on postpartum depression to
Give an Hour™ providers, and Give an Hour™ specialists are given the opportunity
to join the Postpartum Support International
network.
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 Give an Hour™ Volunteer Mental Health Professionals
Provide Nearly $2 Million in Service
to Iraq
and Afghanistan Veterans, Families, and Communities
Give an Hour™ announces
results of its October 2009 survey and reports a 166 percent increase in
services rendered since one year ago.
Give an Hour™
periodically surveys its volunteer providers to assess its impact and
effectiveness and to determine how programs and services can be adapted to best
meet the needs of the military population.
The October
2009 survey found: - 19,794 total hours have been donated in
mental health services, not including volunteer hours spent on operations
-
6,869 hours were given in
direct, face-to-face counseling
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1,203 hours were given in
phone counseling
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9,988 hours were given in
education and outreach
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1,734 hours were given in
additional ways, such as community events
Using
a nationwide average of $100 per hour for mental health services, Give an Hour™ providers
have donated $1,979,400 since Give an Hour™
began providing these critical services in July 2007.
Give
an Hour™ has more than 4,500 licensed mental health professionals
on its network, in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico. Give
an Hour™ aims to recruit 40,000, or 10
percent, of the nation's 400,000 mental health professionals to this cause.
"This Veterans Day, as our nation honors our
veterans, it is very appropriate for us to report on GAH's impact," says Dr.
Barbara Van Dahlen, founder and president of Give an Hour™. "It is clear that our volunteer providers are
making a difference. In the wake of the
Fort Hood tragedy, we issued a call to action to all mental health
professionals in Texas to join our network. Today, I'd like to echo that call
across the country. Whether it is direct
counseling or whether it is educating the military and veteran communities and
the general public about these issues, the services of Give an Hour™ volunteers are vital."
Mental
health professionals interested in joining Give an Hour™ can complete an easy
online form at www.giveanhour.org.
Visitors in need of services can log on and use the provider search to locate a
mental health professional in their area who meets their needs. If there is no
provider in their area, Give an Hour™ will locate one.
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 Texas Governor Perry Announces Initiative with Give an Hour™
On November 9, Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, founder and president of Give an Hour™, and Andrew Pogany, director of military outreach and education for Give an Hour™ (in orange tie), joined Gov. Rick Perry in San Antonio, Texas, as he announced initiatives to expand and improve mental health
support programs for veterans and their families utilizing state funds marked
for veterans mental health.
Gov. Perry has directed the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to recruit and train volunteers
and practitioners to provide mental health support to veterans. DSHS and the Texas Veterans Commission will support the
expansion of Give an Hour™ into Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Fort Sam Houston in
San Antonio, Rio Grande Valley (Brownsville), Fort Bliss in El Paso, and Fort
Hood in Killeen in the next year.
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Give an Hour™ and American Red Cross Call All Mental
Health Professionals in Texas to Volunteer Their Services
In the wake of the Fort Hood tragedy,
Give an Hour™ has issued a call to action to all mental health
professionals in Texas to join the Give an Hour™
network.
Currently,
there are 300 licensed mental health professionals volunteering their time on
the Give an Hour™ network in Texas.
"Given the size of the military
community in Texas and the losses Texas had already suffered in terms of lives
lost and otherwise altered as a result of the wars, we had already been working
on launching a statewide initiative in Texas," says GAH Founder and President Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen. "It is clear after the Fort Hood tragedy that
the need for our services will be greater than ever and that we must
immediately mobilize the mental health community to deal with the aftermath."
In addition
to providing direct counseling services, Give an Hour™ will be partnering with
other organizations, including the USO and Blue Star Families, to ensure that
the needs of Texas's military families are continually met.
Give an Hour™
is also ready to provide mental health consultants to
other veterans service organizations, first-responders, congregations, and
schools.
Sherri L. Brown, Senior Vice President, Service to the Armed
Forces, American Red Cross, issued the following statement on the Give an Hour™ program:
"The American Red Cross is honored to work in cooperation
with Give an Hour™ to enhance support services for military members, veterans,
and their families. The American Red
Cross has served military families proudly for more than 125 years, including programs
that meet today's needs of the military and their families during this cycle of
multiple deployments.
"Cooperation with Give an Hour™ will include sharing Red
Cross expertise in working with the military to help train Give an Hour™
volunteers; providing our mental health volunteers the opportunity to also
serve with Give an Hour™; and sharing information on other potential areas of
coordination.
"Through this type of collaboration, we are able to magnify
our impact in serving the military community. We look forward to further leveraging our
mental health expertise and dedicated cadre of volunteer professionals to serve
today's needs," Ms. Brown added.
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 The Walmart Foundation Awards $100,000 Grant to Give an Hour™ to Fund Partnership with Student Veterans of America
Give an Hour™ is grateful to the Walmart Foundation for giving us a $100,000 two-year grant to
ease veterans' transition from combat to higher education. With funding from
Walmart, and in close cooperation with Student Veterans of America (SVA), Give
an Hour™ will engage its providers to serve as consultants at SVA's sites
around the country. By conducting trainings, advising SVA chapters on best
practices, connecting providers with those in need, and enhancing awareness
among various campus populations of the challenges facing our returning
veterans and their families, GAH will enhance the capacity of these SVA
chapters and university communities to provide high-quality support services to
those who have given so much. The Walmart Foundation
strives to provide opportunities that improve the lives of individuals in
communities nationwide including Walmart's customers and associates. Through its
philanthropic programs and partnerships, the Walmart Foundation supports
initiatives focused on creating opportunities in four main focus areas: (1)
Education, (2) Workforce Development / Economic Opportunity, (3) Environmental
Sustainability, and (4) Health and Wellness.
From February 1, 2008, through January 31, 2009, Walmart--and its domestic and
international foundations--gave more than $423 million in cash and in-kind
gifts globally. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.
Thank you, Walmart!
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 Give an Hour™ Appoints Georg-Andreas Pogany Director of Military Outreach & Education
Born in Germany, Georg-Andreas (Andrew) Pogany enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1996. After serving with Helicopter Anti Submarine Squadron 75 in Florida for two years, he switched services and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He attended basic and advanced training at Fort McClellan, Ala., for training as nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare specialist, MOS 54B. He was later assigned to Fort Hood, Tex., and Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where he was retrained as a human intelligence collector/interrogator. Andrew was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Military Intelligence Detachment at Fort Carson, Colo., in 2001. Following his graduation from the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy in 2003, and the Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course and Advanced Interrogation Course later that year, then Staff Sergeant Pogany deployed to Samara, Iraq, as a member of Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 092, Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). After being incapacitated by toxic drug levels from the anti-malaria drug Lariam and being initially diagnosed with a Combat Stress Reaction, SSG Pogany returned to Fort Carson. After exhaustive medical treatment for what turned out to be a brain injury caused by Lariam toxicity, he was medically retired in the rank of Sergeant First Class and honorably discharged in 2005. Since then Andrew has worked as a veteran's and active duty service member advocate on the issues of health care, combat stress, and military justice. A member of the National Board of Directors for the National Gulf War Resource Center, he has served as investigator and GWOT outreach coordinator with Veterans for America, and most recently investigator and OIF-OEF outreach liaison with the National Veterans Legal Services Program (a public interest law firm) in their Lawyers Serving Warriors program.
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 Graham Foundation Awards Give an Hour™ $15,000 for Awareness Building in Washington, D.C.
Named for the late publisher of the Washington Post and president of the Washington Post Company, the Philip L. Graham Fund devotes its resources to the betterment of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and the field of journalism. The Fund awards several million dollars in grants annually to groups providing educational, social, community enrichment, and arts programs and services to communities in and around Washington, D.C. With this grant Give an Hour™ will be able to focus on spreading the word about our services and mental health issues in the military across the metropolitan D.C. area.
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 Give an Hour™ Hires Katherine Wilkins as
Director of Fund Development
Katherine Grayson Wilkins has worked for over 30 years for a wide variety of causes, including the environment, education, and historic preservation. In all of these areas she has enjoyed connecting people with issues and especially working with volunteers. Before joining the Give an Hour™ staff, Katherine worked at Washington National Cathedral, in the development office, concentrating on major donors, and before that in the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, an interfaith, international social justice program started in 2005. She is married with three adult children and lives in Washington, D.C., while also a partner in her family's Blue Ridge Farm in Virginia. |
Give an Hour™ Team Runs Army Ten Miler
This year the Army Ten Miler celebrated its 25th anniversary, and a team of dedicated Give an Hour™ volunteers was there to run amid a pack of roughly 30,000 runners.
The 10-mile road race is one of the largest in the world and is the Army's premier running event.
The race course starts and finishes at the Pentagon and runs through the nation's capital. Military and civilian runners come from all across the world to be a part of this annual tradition.
The Army Ten Miler is produced by the United States Army Military District of Washington and all proceeds go to the Soldier Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Programs.
Six of the spirited GAH runners assembled before the start of the race--above, from left to right: Heather Wilcox, team manager Brian Hayes, Jeanette Trujillo, Colleen Byrne, Sam Lashley, and Roly Díaz.
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Barbara Van Dahlen Named
2009 Toyota Working Woman of the Year 
The Toyota Working Woman of the Year award is described by WJLA-TV as follows: "The Washington, D.C., area is home to many extraordinary women. They are some of the most diverse and important women in the country. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. They are businesswomen, civil servants, homemakers, teachers, professionals, and volunteers. The one thing these women have in common is the capacity to care and to make a difference in the lives of other people. That's why for the past 15 years, ABC 7 and D.C.'s local Toyota Dealers have been honoring the many ways that women are making a difference at home, at work and in our community."
Dr. Van Dahlen was honored with six other recipients of the 2009 award at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 2009. |
GAH Partner Civic Enterprises Finds Veterans
Want to Keep Serving
GAH partner Civic
Enterprises has just released a report entitled "All Volunteer Force: From Military
to Civilian Service." Underwritten by Target and the Case Foundation, the report
finds that the overwhelming majority of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan want
to serve again, on the homefront. However, they feel disconnected from the
communities to which they return home. This first ever nationally representative
survey, focusing on their transitions home and civic lives, indicates that only
13 percent of veterans strongly agree their transitions are going well. Yet
those veterans who said they had volunteered since returning home had better
transitions than those who had not. The study highlights many vets' hunger to
serve in their communities and their frustration that their talents aren't being
tapped.
Civic Enterprises hopes to spark a national effort around the civic engagement of our nation's newest generation of veterans that will unleash the civic talents of these extraordinary Americans for their own benefit and the benefit of the American people.
For more information on Civic Enterprises and the report, please visit
www.civicenterprises.net.
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 Free Training Opportunities for GAH Providers
The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), would like to invite all
GAH providers to participate in upcoming professional education and training
Webinars, addressing military grief and loss. Since GAH volunteers provide such
a critical and essential volunteer service to servicemembers, veterans, and
surviving families, TAPS will waive the program fee for all GAH
volunteers. When registering, please list "GAH" under the subheading of
AFFILIATION so that you can register for free.
TAPS Webinar
calendar, as well as further professional education and registration, is
available on the TAPS Web site: www.taps.org/professionaleducation.
The next Webinar will be on Thursday,
December 3, 2009, 12:00 p.m. EST and will feature James S.
Gordon, MD, author of "Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage
Journey Out of Depression," Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine
at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and
Director of the Center of Mind and Body Medicine. The topic of this Webinar
will be "Professionals Working with the Grieving and Traumatized: Recognizing
and Caring for Your Own Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue."
If you have any
questions or would like more information, please contact education@taps.org.
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 Donate Now!
Please consider making a financial contribution to Give an Hour™. Your tax-deductible donation will help with outreach to the military and veterans communities; public education and awareness building about the issues affecting our service members and their families; and training for our volunteer providers. https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=611493378
If you are a corporation or foundation interested in funding opportunities, please contact us at info@giveanhour.org. | |
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Provider
Tool Kit
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Are you looking for additional ways to get involved with Give an Hour™? Perhaps you are waiting for a client or are just looking to become more involved in this cause . . . We invite you to look at our updated Provider Tool Kit, found on our Web site, under "providers." Here you will find information on how to promote your affiliation with Give an Hour™ in your own community. There are news release templates, suggestions for outreach to military and veterans organizations, ideas on how to host training events and other suggestions. You will also find a certificate you can download and display in your office. If you are interested in speaking opportunities, or would like to host an event in your community, please let us know. Our success has been built on the ingenuity and generosity of our volunteers. We welcome your ideas.
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