Wounded Warrior Careers

Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Army, NOD is helping severely injured veterans to move forward on career paths—and documenting the approaches that work.

Watch the following video to hear these veterans' stories and learn what NOD is doing to help.

Thanks to OnSlot Creative for producing this video.

Background

Since 2001, more than 500,000 military personnel have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabling conditions, many of them severe enough to be life-altering.

These disabilities often demand a long and difficult period of recovery and adjustment — but they need not be a barrier to civilian employment, income, and independence. Too often, seriously wounded service members lack the training and resources to adapt their military experience and new disabilities to successful civilian careers. The waste of their talents and abilities, and its impact on thousands of military families, is a completely preventable national tragedy.

In 2007, the US Army asked the National Organization on Disability (NOD) to design a solution. The result of this collaboration is the Wounded Warrior Careers Demonstration, in which hundreds of the most severely injured veterans and their families have begun planning and preparing for careers, enrolling in school or training programs, taking jobs, and moving ahead.

In three years, the Army and NOD have built a scalable model and helped hundreds of veterans and their families successfully reintegrate. This effort is further detailed in NOD’s Wounded Warrior Careers Demonstration Program brochure.

Strategy

The following are the key elements of the Wounded Warrior Careers demonstration program:

• Intensive Career Supports: NOD Career Specialists help veterans and their family members explore career options, including education and training, to ensure that veterans have every chance to become a successful member of society.
• Proactive and Prolonged Personal Engagement: NOD does what it takes to connect with veterans and families. We know every soldier on our caseload and reach out to them to help plan and attain economic self-sufficiency and career fulfillment.
• Evaluation and Best Practices: The demonstration collects data to learn what works best to ensure career progress for veterans and their families, and to make those lessons more broadly known.
• Family is the Unit Served: The AW2 program was designed by the Army to serve the family. NOD’s Career Specialists help veterans and their families meet their career goals so that the family unit can be strong and effective.

For more information, contact Bill Lockwood.