since arisen. a couple weeks ago, the president awarded the army ranger medal that he earned on his seventh deployments. really an unprecedented act in the last couple months, we had another army soldier killed who was on his 14th deployment almost incomprehensible we would have soldiers, marines, airmen and folks from the navy deployed that often. that's where we are. we all know we've begun -- we've begun the trajectory to come out of afghanistan. we're not out yet. if you saw the news today, six americans killed yesterday in afghanistan. and, of course, i think we're going to see that's going to continue. the question then becomes, what

can we do as a country? to help this group and support them and those who are giving so much and so very rarely ask for anything in return. they really rally the country to action, and they did this back in april of last year. we're only about nine months into this. we're working down four lanes. public awareness, employment, education and wellness, particularly mental health. if you've been to a movie or watched football in the last couple weeks, you've seen public service announcements calling to action -- the country to do something, to step up and do something and do what you do best in your communities to help serve this population.

it's also reaching out to serve military families. it was nascar back in the fall. we're recognizing 5,000 military families to commit to hiring 4,000 swret ranz just at the local level in the next two years. most recently and just last week, we teamed with the ncaa who's committed to doing 600 special things for military families in 2012 alone. and they kicked off a nice public service announcement campaign. and for those of you who have any tweens you saw the first lady in an episode of "i carly"

with the message of what it means to a child to have a parent deployed. with more than 60% of americans saying the war has no personal impact on them, it needs to be rudimentary and fundamental. these are the fundamentals of mom and dad going off to war. that's public awareness, i think we'll continue to see more and more of those in the months to come. i'll talk about employment at the end. education, we're working down two lanes. first to work with an organization called the national math science initiative which i will refer to as ap on steroids, it's the most advanced courses in the country. in institutionalizing those in public schools that have a large military kid population. and not known to most, most

public schools. most military children go to a public school that is not a dod school. this is an effort to submit for the long term some advanced education opportunities. as we do that, we're also looking to cement opportunities that are sustainable for the long haul in terms of educating the nation's future teachers, so we've been working with 100 universities around the country with the goal of getting them to commit to training all of the teachers in their respective institutions, in some fundamental course relating to a military child. what if means to have a military child in their classroom. if you're a public schoolteacher in hopkinsville, kin kin. and you have a couple young kids falling asleep and you're teaching a sixth grade class, it would be healthy for you to have some understanding that this young kid's parent is in eastern afghanistan, you may or may not have heard from the parent in a

couple weeks, mom or dad is stressed, they've been gone for eight or nine months, anyone at a human level can appreciate the challenges there. and we want our nation's future teachers to have that perspective. in the world of wellness or behavioral health, working on two pieces, one -- and they're fairly broad. there isn't a day that goes by that we don't read something about ptsd and tbi. they're the invisible wounds of this war, although they are hardly new issues. the same issues have been around for every war. in just the last two weeks we've taken two specific steps to help address this, the first of which is, we believe very firmly that because this population is young, everyone who has fought in these wars was in their 20s

and 30s when they did it. so they're around for 50 or 60 more years, this is a long term -- and along those lines, we invested a significant amount of time with all of the nation's medical colleges. and we asked them to come together with one commitment which is to train the nation's future physicians in understanding ptsd and tbi in a military cultural competency. the reason being more than half of the veterans in this country do not seek medical care within the va or dod systems. in order to address important long term behavioral issues, all of the physicians around the country whether you're in des moines, south florida, wherever you may be, you you need to have some understanding, because there's a tremendous impact on this population. the great news, they stemmed up and did it, big announcement in richmond just the night before last. 130 medical colleges came together and thought this was an

important endeavor and we'll train the nation's future physicians in this. that's the future. we're also working with 30 medical associations around the country. getting them -- asking them to fundamentally do the same thing in more of a no context. that is for all of the medical disciplinings in the country, asking them to have nurses, physical therapists, physicians, emergency room surgeons to have some basic understanding of ptsd and tbi so you can recognize it and take action. you don't have to be the expert, but to have some knowledge based on where the veteran family population is in the country we believe is a must and we'll see some announcements about that in the coming weeks. the last thing i would like to talk about, is an area where each of you could have an impact and could you do it today, is in the world of employment.

young veteran unemployment is significantly higher than the national average. that comes as a shock to many people. the nation lost 8 million jobs. and young veterans were hit particularly hard. there are some other pieces that go with that, including what is historically not been much of a need to have to translate those skills you earned on the battlefield into civilian speak. but with fewer and fewer leaders in our nation's institutions volcano been veterans themselves, it's important that young veterans be able to translate those experiences into civilian speak so employers can understand it. i use myself as a good example. were i seeking a job today -- there's not a great need for that in the private sector these days, but there is probably some need for managing thousands of

people in a $500 million budget. and material in the billions of dollars. that's where our young people need to seize opportunities and translate those skills. the good news is, we really embarked in a significant effort to address this issue. in using the private sector. back in august, the president challenged the private sector to hire or train 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013. it's a pretty ambitious goal. he asked the first lady and dr. biden to lead the effort. engagement with communities and particularly with businesses both big and small. the great news is, companies have stepped up left and right. just under our umbrella. it's an enormous country. we've had about 1500 companies already hire more than 35,000 veterans and spouses in just five months.

we're on an incredible trajecto trajectory. these same companies have committed to hire 135,000 veterans and spouses in the next five years. >> our message is, let's continue to address this by spreading the news in the most impactful way where folks can make a difference at the community level? i would suggest the mayors of this nation can really help with this, whether it's engagement with the local chamber of commerce, encouraging veteran hiring, what we find out is, for those who have done this -- if you're a veteran and you're hiring a veteran, you get it, you understand the type and quality of person you're getting. for those who have not been in the veteran hiring space, i'll use a great example of one of today's sponsors. we'll lean into this, we'll hire 300 veterans this year.

eight weeks later they did it. they said, let's go to 450. eight weeks later they did it again, and said, geez, we really love the quality of the people we're getting this is not a population we had targeted. they ended up with 620 folks in 2011. that's one company in the united states of america. replicate that times 29,000 and you can see the possibility of really helping the young veteran population in a short period of time. my ask of the group is, go back on your communities and spread the word, hire a veteran or military spouse. you will find time and time again, the quality of the person you get are already a veteran of the greatest training, is a positive at the company level. it's good for the bottom line.

we've emphasized that. it's one thing to hire a veteran because it's patriotic. it's a whole other thing to do it, because it makes good business sense and it's good for your bottom line. i get feedback every day from ceo's saying, give me more. i love this group, they're talented. you are not alone in this endeavor. no one from the federal government is saying, mr. mayor, go out and do this, and good luck. in just the last couple months, we've had the most robust public private partnership with the i.t. giants in the country to help this out. we've also had policies in place to help you out. let's talk about the policies first. on november 21st, the president signed a law authorizing tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans up to $5600. we're only -- we're less than two months into this. most of the nation probably got a good injection of it in the news that one night. but if you weren't watching the

news you may not have known. this is huge news back on main street. so hire a veteran, do it because it makes good sense for your company and get a tax credit for it, up to $5600. if you hire one of the nation's wounded warriors, that tax credit is up to $10,000. there's financial incentive to do it as well. please spread that word, i use every opportunity to tell every businessman and woman in this country. this is an opportunity to not only help out, but do great things for your bot ott line, and help your bottom line in the process of doing it. this is an american issue. while that policy piece is in place, there are several others that are helpful. i think secretary solis has talked about the gold card.

this is at the one stop throughout the country. the veteran gold card is available to every post 911 veteran in the united states of america. help take sergeant cooper and introduce him to the private sector in a meaningful way and put him or her at the top to zee fine meaningful employment. i would ask you to spread that word. the department of labor is greatly involved. in a very personal way in matching -- to be able to match individual who with a need for a job and unemployed are in the pool for those out there.

we've worked with google, linkedin. what used to be 193 job portals for veterans around the country and provide a single stop shopping opportunity for the veteran veterans as a result of the collaborative effort between the dod and va. in the great private outreach called simply hired. scoops all the veterans around the country and deposited 500,000 jobs where companies indicated a desire to hire a veteran in this one single stop. then behind that, google developed a -- what they refer to as a tagging scheme. they offered every single company in america who desires to use it, the opportunity to electronically tag any job they would like to hire a veteran into, and then google scoops these jobs up and deposit them

into the veterans job bank. two-way street here, great for companies, because now they have an opportunity to advertise where they want jobs. anyone can surf -- i graduated from high school, i joined the military, spent four or five or six years in. i learned a lot of leadership experience, now i'm out. to help enable that process, the president asks the department of defense to stand a task force. you've heard the term to design a reverse boot camp. we've spent around enormous amount of time training veterans

on the back end. this is a work in progress for this group. i think we'll hear from them in the coming months. my message is, as far and loud and wide as you can communicate, there's a tax credit involved. several government measures, incredible support from the va that includes opening up a vocational training, and i think we can get at this in 2012. optimistic that we're on a trajectory to really be able to hit this hard here. i took more than my allotted five minutes, but i appreciate it. >> we appreciate you being here. we're here to make sure we as mayors can utilize our resources on the ground to partner, and

that's what it's about, our message to our chamber of commerces, our economic development, people on the ground that these resources are there. >> the u.s. chamber of commerce, the chamber has had 80 hiring pairs around the country, have hired more than 7,000 veterans. they've learned so much, they're going to have 300 to 400 of these in 2012. obviously, 300 to 400 hiring fairs, one will be in a city near you you. we ask for your support in this. and i think we can count on your presence. >> thank you, brian. one thing i forgot to mention, brian is still active duty, serving -- he's still on active duty. we're very fortunate to have as our next speaker, barbara

thompson. she's the director of the office of family, youth -- she's responsible for programs and policies that promote military families, well being and quality of life. she holds a va from st. louis university and a master of from troy state university. barbara's here to talk to us about the services available to support our military families. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for the opportunity to share some of the wonderful programs that we have to support military members and their family. and i want to give you a little bit of a context. two thirds -- even up to 70% of our active be duty force live in your communities. they do not live on the installations like we did in the '70s. they're embedded in your communities, attending your churches, shopping in your

shopping malls, they really are a part of your community. and we want to make sure we don't see them as being isolate ed. this has been ten years of intense deployments, separations and a lot of families. a lot of things that have changed in my world is the use of the garden reserve. never before have we deployed our garden reservists as we have in oif and oef. the infrastructure in the department was really not set up for geographically dispersed family members. in 2007 we did change some of our programming and how we approach reservists. our active duty folks who

sometimes go back home and live with extended family while their loved one is deployed. i want to share some of the resources and our thinking along those lines, how we reach and contact those people. in your dark blue folder, i just kind of listed some of the programs that fall under military community and family policy. we say we cover the cradle to the grave because we start at birth in our early childhood programs and we also have casualty assistance, mortuary affairs and funeral hon irs in our portfolio. we look at all aspects of support during those times. a lot of websites and a lot of information. i think when you're informed about what is available, you can then share it with the right people in your spheres to make sure they are ambassadors to share this information. one of our greatest kmaechallen is to make sure our military

families know about the resources available to them. i think that is critical, because it could -- it's really frustrating from the policy level, when we hear of issues that military families are facing. and it's like, my goodness, we offer this, we have this. whether it's nonmedical counselling to support military children in the public school system or it is something as rudimentary how do you get information about relocation and your new community. i hope this will be a good reference for you all, on some of the programs we have available. i will say that our military families -- one of their primary focus is the children's education. that is one of their number one worries because they move so often. if you you are a child attending 6 to 9 schools during your career, you know how difficult that is to transition from

school to school and state to state with all the different requirements. and so we have 39 states that have signed the interstate compact, which is ayerst to help those children transitioning not to take their credits in three states before they graduate high school. or even into sports teams because they missed the tryouts. we know we have 39 states that cover 88% of our children. we also know that the implementation has been sketchy. the next year we're going to be working carefully to make sure that our states school superintendents though about the interstate compact and how it will impact military children. it's not just for all military children, but children who transfer. our children move so often it was really an effort to protect them.

employment for military spouses is of particular interest. we know that the financial stability of the family often hinges on the spouse's income too. and we know that our spouses have an unemployment rate of 26% compared to their civilian counterparts, and we know that they're underemployed by about 25%. and we know they're more highly educated. 24% of our spouses have bachelor's degrees. we have a program called the military spouse employment partnership, which is again an effort to connect employers to a really great asset in their communities, and that's military spou spouses even though they'll mobile they have the leadership and flexibility skills just as their servicemen. since june 29th, dr. biden launched military spouse

employment partnership, we've hired over 13,000 spouses in jobs with 100 companies that are partnered with us to provide those opportunities for our spouses. our goal is to increase the numbers of businesses, especially for portable careers, our virtual careers, so that spouses have an opportunity to have a career path and not start from scratch every time they move to a new location. i think with the reintegration piece. we consider that the most difficult phase. separation is one thing, but reintegrating into your family after being separated for a year can be very challenging. and so we are working very closely with law enforcement to ensure that there's an awareness about domestic violence, about risky behaviors, and use of alcohol so that hopefully our

law enforcement is asewned to the fact that person they stopped are involve d -- that they're in tuned with what they've lived through. access to health and mental health services, not only for our service members, but also for their families. this has been a tremendous toll on our children in particular. it's been a toll on spouses, because they're trying to keep the home front stabilized while their spouse is deployed and that's challenging. and then i think we also have an emphasis on predatory lending. not financial entities that prey on military families. they though they have a paycheck coming in every month. we're working closely with the

new consumer federal protection board and the office of service members with mrs. petraeus to ensure that our families are safe from predatory lenders and predatory practices. what i would like you to take away with are two things. our military installations really mirror your communities. your installation kmarnder is basically a mayor in your town. whether it's churches, schools, recreation facilities, childhood development centers, youth centers, there's an important connection between your community and our community. and our office has a new initiative called community capacity building where we're working with the university of georgia and the university of north carolina chapel hill to really empower our helping professionals with the skills to reach out to the communities helping professionals so that

you are aware of the needs of military families and we are aware of the resources you have, and you are aware of the resources that we can bear in this effort. it's going to take a village if you will to really support these families, because they're out in your communities. and a lot of times they seek the support of their neighbors. one of the great things about joining forces is that these random acts of kindness, whether it's from the larger city or the neighbor next door or the person you go to church with, that that is really important that we all see the little acts of kindness that can really make an impact on how they can manage the stressors of the military lifestyle. the last thing i would like to leave with, it's an administration initiative. it's called let's move. mrs. obama has been a spokesperson for preventing childhood obesity.

and the department of defense considers this a national security issue. we know that 17 to 24-year-olds, only 25% of our youth are eligible to enter the military. whether it's for physical -- they're not physically fit, they're obese, they have had some problems with the law or they don't meet the education standards. but obesity is preventable. and so she has an initiative called let's move cities and towns, where the mayors commit to making physical activity, better nutrition and reduced screen time a focus of their administration. we are taking that model and developing a let's move insta installati installation, so they also get on the bandwagon. we find it's critical not only for the well being of our families but the future force. the army has extended their boot