Posts Tagged ‘military spouses’

A survey released Wednesday by Blue Star Families found that 62 percent of military family members who believed their service member had exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless of any official diagnosis, did not seek treatment due to doubts about the military’s support system. The finding demonstrates there is still much to be done to help service members and their families deal with the invisible wounds of war, concluded the nonprofit dedicated to supporting military families …

The Massachusetts Senate last week unanimously approved legislation extending benefits and increasing access to a range of services for military personnel, their families and veterans. The Valor Act would provide an array of benefits to help veterans and active military members obtain improved business, educational and housing opportunities …

An initiative spearheaded by Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear scored its first significant achievement with the enactment of state legislation providing adoption benefits to members of the National Guard. The adoption benefits measure was the first major initiative to emerge from the Military Spouse Task Force established last October by the first lady …

An eight-day boot camp at Florida State University is teaching the spouses of injured veterans how to become entrepreneurs while taking of their wounded warriors. The program covers key business skills, such as where to obtain financing, as well as how to take advantage of military benefits, reported the Capitol News Service. The state of Florida last week made it easier for veterans to start their own businesses, announcing that it is waiving licensing fees. The move could save veterans’ families more than a thousand dollars.

First Lady Michelle Obama began her remarks at a celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Joining Forces campaign by recounting a lengthy list of the initiative’s accomplishments. “Over the past year, more than 1,600 businesses have hired more than 50,000 veterans and spouses, and they pledged to hire at least 160,000 more in the coming years …

First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden hope to ensure the “Joining Forces” initiative results in a permanent structure that becomes part of the nation’s culture, the two said in an interview marking the one-year anniversary of the effort to recognize and support military families and veterans. The campaign’s first year has been incredibly successful, reaching its goal of obtaining commitments from 100 companies to hire 100,000 military spouses and veterans …

Military families will wear heart monitors as part of a University of Minnesota study assessing the stress of deployment on Guard and Reserve families. Minnesota was chosen for the study — which is scheduled to track 400 families over five years — because its citizen-soldiers generally are older and more likely to have families than service members on active duty …

Unveiling a new hiring initiative to aid military spouses, First Lady Michelle Obama announced Wednesday that the Joining Forces program had secured commitments for more than 15,000 jobs that will allow military spouses and veterans to work at or close to home. The new effort will offer spouses thousands of at-home employment opportunities in areas such as customer support and telemarketing, as well as jobs that are located near military installations …

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal last week proposed legislation that would benefit service members entering the civilian workforce and military families relocating from another state. The legislation would speed up the transfer of professional licenses and certifications for military family members relocating to Louisiana from other states and establish procedures for military personnel that credit specialized training into equivalent non-military licenses and certifications …

Military spouses would be eligible to collect unemployment benefits if they are forced to quit their jobs following a military transfer, under legislation approved by the Tennessee Senate last week. Currently, individuals who leave a job voluntarily in Tennessee are not eligible to collect unemployment benefits …