good morning. welcome to the "viewpoint" for many veterans and families life after military service can be a challenge. there'sen are nonprofits who have made it their mission to step in and help military families get through what can be trying times. our guest this morning is kristin. she's with careers -- she's the careers program manager for the families. service platoon leader here and laura dempsey is with mission continues. welcome all of you. >> thank you.

>> to "viewpoint." kristen, later this month, your organization is going to release the annual survey of military families that focuses on the biggest issues they're facing right now. what are the issues? >> this year blister families does the military family life survey every year and top issues center around transition, financial security, and also uncertainty. there's a lot of uncertainty right now as to benefits and as to what holds the people for transitioning out and people staying in. the common practices that other people experiencing because of the economy but some additional uncertainty at the same time. >> laura, in your experience, what are the biggest issues? >> well, what we find based on our research and based on our

collective research throughout the organization is the biggest challenges for veterans when they leave are really more of a sense of culture and life. cot heegs in the military. they miss the sense of purpose. they want to keep serving but they don't know. they miss the sense they have a clear path toward their goal and knowing what step it is takes to get there. some of the best nonprofit know that and can help. >> blue star families is the largest network of military family members in the nation. tell us about some of the programs that you working on and the new movement to help veterans reintegrate into the community when they come home. we talked before the program began about how there's a change, a shift in the way reintegration takes place.

kristen? >> alongside every transitioning service-member there's a transitioning family. we know from our research and survey that 66% of issue haves use their family as their primary service when they were transitioning out. so when we go to help service-members, we want to make sure that we support those family members that are transitioning as well. some programs we have to do it we have the care givers, empowering care givers program. it's peer-to-peer. when people are coming back and they need extra help. i manage a program called blue star careers which helps with spouse and military family member employment. we know it's excellent as a bridge for the transitioning service-members getting out. if the spouse has a job, the

service-member can take the best job, not the first job that comes along. because there's already an income coming into the household. they can leverage the network and connection the spouse has into the civilian community that might not exist within the service-member community. >> you are a native veteran. you served in afghanistan. tell us about your military service. >> sure. i served in the navy from 2004 to 2008. my first duty was in pensacola, florida. i helped support the schools for students in the aviation field. after that, i got stationed in carver, washington, with land based electronic attack squadron. we deployed to afghanistan in 2008. >> you had to make the transition in 2008. what was it like coming home ending your active duty? >> it was very rough. i got back from afghanistan in september of 2008, and my end of

active service was november. i spent two weeks in o'carver and i had a month and a half of leave saved up. i got out, you know, went back home to my parents'. lived with them for awhile. i tried to make the transition but it was rough. the way i got out, it wasn't a great way. i was subject to the performance initiative that the navy[aab ha. i had to make e 4 or change my job or get out of the service. and unfortunately since i'm red and green color blind as well, there weren't too many jobs for me to pick from. i had had to get out. after that it was really rough. it was a downturn of the economy in 2008. >> that was rough year for everyone. >> yes. yes. rough for everyone. especially for military folks coming out. was really hard for me to find a job. four years of military experience, security clearance,

but none of it was good enough to get a job during that time. >> all right. we have to take a break but we'll talk about the help after military life being provided when we continue. oh wow. you look incredible! right?! is this the bacon and cheese diet? this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. what's different? oh, it's my chicken and cheese enchilada diet.

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welcome back. we're talking life after military service for veterans and for their families and we want to finish your story. you got out of the navy in 2008, then it was four years before you actually got your sea legs, so to speak. >> yes. it was a rough transition. i was trying to find services that would help me out. didn't find too many that were helpful. i did figure that i did get a great benefit through my g.i. bill. i figured i would use it and it would buy me enough time to figure out what to do by the

time my benefits expired. >> you started mission continues tell us. >> i was awarded it in 2012. july of 2012 through january of 2013. it was a fellowship for me to serve in my community 20 hours a week for six months. i decided to serve at the national veteran's center helping the executive director build off the program there. >> laura, you're serving as the southeast regional director for the mission continues. tell us about the programs that you are using to help further this change, the shift in the way veterans are transitioning back into the community. >> right. well, the mission continues is one of, i think, a few great nonprofits that are helping to fill the gaps. there are a lot of veterans and families coming out. i think a million over the next five years is the latest figure that is being published, and the

government simply cannot access all of those people at once. what we're starting to see is a lot of great public private. we have taken the two different challenges and give veterans the opportunity to empower themselves in their community no matter where they're going. we have fellowships like the paid fellowships for six months in the nonprofit of their choice. we mobilize the nonprofit and work with the nonprofit to make sure they have a successful experience, and they lead a new project or program for that nonprofit in their community and frequently hired by the nonprofit which is a great side benefit. our newest program takes veterans in teams. going back to the sense of team and unit cohesion in their communities. they together decide on a

mission or a tough community challenge they want to tackle then we help mobilize the community around them. in their spare time on the weekends they do service projects that are aimed at ending some kind of difficult challenge in their community. >> the way it used to work the veteran would go to a agency and get a list of community or other organizations or resources to access. that's the old way. does it work that way anymore or work as well that way? >> what i would say there are a lot of great benefits and resours for veterans to access, but maybe not the most efficient way to get them to the sources. what we find when our veterans do the fellowship and join a service platoon they're interacting regularly with the other platoon members almost constantly. they're in touch as well. when one is in trouble, even the platoon members connect them

with the representatives who is working with them can cover for them. so it happens a lot more organically and happens in the community. they don't have to find that one place with a list of phone numbers to call, which may or may not lead to help. >> kristen, unemployment is a problem among veterans that come out of the military that are trained and can't find work. talk about the challenges of getting them retrained and intergrated. >> what laura is talking about the opportunity to em mesh veterans and their families into networks, social networks, employment networks. so he had skills. he didn't know a lot of people where he was. he didn't have a network that would help e him get the job. it's required these days. it's not about searching on a job post anymore. the idea are more agile and

flexible. they can go from the bottom up instead of top down like a lot of traditional organizations or traditional services do for veterans. the whole idea is trying to em mesh them in the community by creating that sense of service or by engaging them in the community through a job, through a service, through community work, you know, on the weekends that you're talking about. that helps enmesh veterans and their familiy into the communit. it makes the transition more successful. >> it took you four years. how do you feel now? >> amazing. i feel great! i feel like i've been connected with at lot of resources in the community. i'm affecting other veteran's lives. if they ask me about a question or need access to services w ss they can give me a call or e-mail and i'll connect them with the right people. it's been great

>> tell them what you're doing next? >> i got hired by mission continues to help them build on the service platoon program in the northeast. so i feel like -- >> sounds like a promotion. >> it is! a huge promotion! and i'll be training veterans in these cities so boston, philly, pittsburgh, all five burboros ow york. >> fantastic. we'll continue our talk right after this. stay us with. -- stay with us.

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welcome back. we continue our discussion about life after the military. we were talk about work a moment ago. i want to talk about the work of a spouse and the career of a spouse. keeping a job and maintaining a career is a big challenge for many military spouses.

talk about the challenge it was for you as a lawyer >>well, i think it was -- it's a challenge like we were talking about for any licensed profession. as lawyers, you know, you can't really practice in a state until you passed a bar exam. in the first six years of my career, my husband moved four times, i ended up having to take the bar exam in first different states in the first six years of my career. not only was -- yeah. not only was a challenge in the ways you might imagine but is very expensive. it costs money to take the bar, costs money to wait for a job, costs money to study for a bar exam. there were a lot of layers of difficulty on top of the usual. >> you're very tenacious. >> thank you. >> kristen, what about your story? >> so my husband has been stationed nine different places in 14 years including overseas. and so it has been a challenge. i think one area for me now

works is working for blue star families is working remotely. this is an area that holds a lot of promise for spouses moving forward. the economy is well lined to look for more virtual tellwork positions. companies are existed in hiring them. it might be the one place where there's no liability being a military spouse. because they don't care where you are. you can get it done. employers can look at the whole package without the liability that sometimes hangs over our head of frequent relocation. >> what about upward mobility and moving up the corporate ladder of job security. is it an issue for you? >> it's huge. we know it's america is a dual-income society. it takes two paychecks to get ahead and save for retirement. there's a loss of seniority recruel. every time laura transferred i'm guessing her retirement didn't necessarily go with her. any time of retirement has to be

started over or your seniority starts over. not only do you have to change jobs but having to prove yourself again and start at the bottom of the pay scale. instead, a lot of military spouses are looking to start their own companies or to work remotely and to take care of their own retirement portfolio in order to keep up and make sure second income is there so when their spouses retire, they also have the complimentary income. >> is that what you've done? >> well, pretty much. i stopped practicing law after a few years. it did get cost prohibitive and started working in the nonprofit world. and maybe being in the military community for 15 years spouses have the same sense of volunteerism and community. they volunteer three times the national average according to our research. working in nonprofits for me was a great way to give back. >> you are single, i assume? >> yes, i am.

>> you don't have that issue to deal with. but you have worked not only as a veteran and very successful after your service. you've worked with disabled veterans. talk about some of the challenges they face when they leave the military. >> dealing with this disabled veterans is a whole different animal. i think one of the biggest issues is people don't know how to talk to disabled veterans. you know, i have a lot of friends who only have one leg, have a prosthetic leg, i think the biggest thing is people don't know you can walk up to them and talk to them like they're a normal person. they might have had a different experience, but they go through the same things you go through. >> and finding work for disabled veterans, kristen? >> i think sometimes disabled veterans oftentimes when there's a lot of time in terms recovery time or time out for different therapies, again, i think that's

another group that can seriously benefit from tellwork. we see more aligning in terms of more flexible work hours or being able to work from home. i think these are interesting areas there's more alignment between two different groups you don't typically think of military spouses and veterans needing a same job. there's a lot of alignment in those. we have a program called blue star jobs at blue star families. it's powered by an online job finding marketplace. we can match up spouses, military spouses or veterans disabled veterans would be a great one that maybe need the flexibility to work their own hours. they can work from home. or they can work set agreed upon hours. it frees them up and addresses the seniority issue. they are working and negotiate the hours and working on the same platform, that, to me,

interestingly is where there's a lot of synergy and cooperation. >> we'll be right back. stay with us.

oh wow. you look incredible! right?! is this the bacon and cheese diet? this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. what's different? oh, it's my chicken and cheese enchilada diet. well keep it up, honey. it's working. oh, gracias! did i tell you i'm on the... (in unison) chicken pot pie diet! (in unison) me too! lisa, did i tell you i'm on the.. soups so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups.

welcome back. 90% of the veterans would not become well adjusted without the programs. and the programs can be accessed in any community, in most communities across the country, correct? >> mission continues. has about 100 service platoons we're planning to launch in 2016 and cities around the country. you can do a fellowship with the mission continues anywhere you go. what we find it's the perfect mesh between the link to the new community and linking you to other veterans who are going through the same experiences you are so you can keep one foot in each world, so to speak, and transition at the pace comfortable for you. >> the chapter-based programs have really opened up lot of opportunity for veterans and their families. >> absolutely.

we have active duty service transi transmembers who can access the programs. they're chapter based. you can do the same thing. you can keep one foot in but also go back and reengage in the civilian community and reach people where they are in their community. and the idea is strengthening both the civilian and military communities together. >> do you feel stronger? what kind of advice would you give to other veterans like yourself? >> piece of advice i would give is to join some of the platoons that are forming in their cities across the country. these are groups of veterans who know about the resources in your area, know what you've been through, are building that sense of comradery we miss after we leave the service. >> and you still need? >> of course.

it's great to be able to talk about your experiences. one of the things i found is veterans don't talk about their issue unless they're hands on and doing something. you can get to the core problems or their core needs by getting them out in the community and doing stuff. >> laura, would you say the programs are a lifeline for veterans and the families? >> i would absolutely say they're a lifeline. we have seen it work at an individual level and across the country. >> all right, and of course, you're assessable on the internet? >> of course! >> all right. i believe we've been showing some of the websites and encourage people to make contact with you. and find these networks. there's a lot of help available. >> there is in their own community.

all right. thank you all for the work you're doing. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you for staying with us. news 4 continues.

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- upload speeds as fast as your download speeds join now at fiosspeedmatch.com verizon. "news 4 today" begins with breaking news. >> taking a live look right now at the capitol beltway you are looking at lanes that have been closed on the inner loop for a couple hours. this is at maryland 202 in the landover area. you can see emergency crews there working away. it appears to be a serious accident. we're waiting to confirm if anyone was really hurt, if there is a fatal involved. this has been the case now as i mentioned for a couple hours, watching it closely. we have a call in to maryland state police and we promise to bring you the latest information as it comes in. good morning, everybody. welcome to "news 4 today." i'm angie goff. >> i'm chris gordon. also this morning a big change in our weather after all that rain last fight.