appreciate this opportunity to present to you our plan to assist Disabled Veterans, who desire to increase their quality of life, improve their marketable job skills, and offer all veterans a repository of options they may not otherwise have access.
Although we do not claim to have answers to all of the challenges Disabled Veterans may face, we have irrefutable evidence that we have the answers to some. Our dedicated, multi-state, multifaceted team of professionals has developed a plan with a number of options towards obtaining a goal of self-sufficiency.
Disabled Veterans Products & Services – A WHITE PAPER
Historically, each Military conflict produces a new population of Disabled Veterans. In addition to those suffering physical injuries, recent conflicts have produced inordinate numbers of Veterans who suffer from mental health issues, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury. Despite their disabilities, the majority of these Veterans maintain a desire to lead productive and relevant lives. Without the ability to contribute, many find their self-esteem diminished. Increasingly this perspective leads to depression and/or suicidal ideations that frequently come to fruition. The suicide rate among combat and Disabled Veterans is twice that of non-veterans.(1)
Disabled Veterans need to return to the normalcy of being a productive member of society. Many wish to do what they can to “put food the table” and the vast majority desire to stay productive in some way. Skills from their military service or prior work experience can frequently be readily marketable and applied to meet real needs in their communities. However, they often lack tools adapted to their physical or mental limitations. Our organization has sourced a broad cross-section of proven methods to address and derive solutions that have been demonstrated and could be successfully utilized in addressing the problems that our Disabled Veterans are facing.
1 NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2007 Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans; A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate for Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans
Our DVPS solution proposes to identify, equip, mobilize, and promote the skills of Disabled Veterans with the aim of returning them to gainful employment, by creating more options of avocation for the home bound Veteran, providing more employment opportunities for Disabled Veterans than is now being offered.
Time is of the essence! We believe that each day our program is not in place more Veterans will simply give up the struggle and become a statistic. We have a business plan for the various courses of action that is focused but has the ability to adapt to changing conditions.
In utilizing personal contacts, Internet social networking sites and Veteran’s organizations, we will need to identify and interview potential Disabled Veterans clients for participation, to identify their skills and potential roles in a compendium of opportunities presented by DVPS.
In addition we plan to establish an initial pilot or model facility utilizing Veterans and our DVPS team to develop management and environmentally responsible production processes for several products. (Ref the Plan below). We hope that this pilot or model facility will demonstrate that our ideas will begin to offer options for Disabled Veterans of employment that they currently don't have.
We will need to find funding for the first facility, operating costs, personnel, and other associated costs and would like to begin working with these concepts with our most basic ideas and least costly manner to employ Disabled Veterans perhaps including a small courier or delivery service, our concept of a Disabled Veterans Ebay store, perhaps a Disabled Veterans internet broadcasting service, and many others. These basic ideas could be operated at a minimum of costs. We plan to initiate steps to seek and secure grants and/or corporate sponsors to fund the first facility. After the basic ideas have begun and carefully monitored to insure that they are working properly, then we would like to start a small production facility to make certain products that would be rather simple to manufacture and market. This facility would need to be funded and will include the acquisition of real estate, raw materials, machinery, and tools to begin production. We believe that these concepts could be replicated and useful in several select locations in the United States and we hope to demonstrate that one of these facilities could be self sustaining and with careful planning they should be able to make a small profit.
We have located sources for donated machinery, hand tools, and some raw materials to utilize for the first production facility. We could plan to initiate full production, utilizing on-site manufacturing, perhaps supplemented by home bound client involvement and after a period of refinement, begin research to identify a location for a second facility, in proximity to a large population of Disabled Veterans. We look forward to offering ancillary services to the Veteran community.
**Specific examples of items in the Solution/Plan can be provided on request. **Biographies of our Board of Directors can be produced on request.The goals would include but not be limited to:
Creating more employment opportunities for Disabled Veterans and offer more options of avocation for the home bound Disabled Veterans. Providing extended rehabilitation for both physical and mental problems.
following products are considered as potentially marketable items.
Randy Crawford was in the Army from 1976 to 1983, working in the Army Security Agency. During the last 4 years of his service he was a Master Instructor for the Army Security Agency and held a Top Secret SI clearance with TK and higher accesses. He was forced to separate from the Military due to Multiple Sclerosis. Currently he is a Service Disabled Veteran. His company Aegis Business Solutions, LLC is an SDVOSB located in Lenexa, KS. Aegis holds 2 GSA Schedules and is one of only 15 SDVOSB’s in the country that hold a Packaged Office Contract. Since securing their contract in August 2007 they have sold more than 23 million dollars’ worth of products or services to the Federal Government.
Joseph F. Avellone was medically retired from the Marine Corps in October of 2002, after sustaining a spinal cord injury while attempting to rescue a fellow Marine. His spinal cord injury affected his C2-C4 vertebras and the paralysis made him a C4 quadriplegic. However, since his paralysis he has achieved many things. Some of those achievements consist of; trophies/medals from both the winter and summer disabled veterans games, a world record set at the 2006 winter games, the 2006 Marine of the year award, and a BS in Political Science. Joseph is a member of the following organizations; Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Elks Lodge, Moose Lodge, and St. Clair County Republican Committee. He served on the Board of Directors of the Gateway Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America for four years and was the Sports Director for three years. Currently, Joseph is running for Illinois State Representative in District 113.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kenneth L. Robinson was a USAF Master Sergeant and was injured in a Helo-Cast and Retired. He served as an Armorer, Marksmanship Instructor, Demolitions Master, and worked a short stint in the Medical field. Kenneth has driven Commercial Truck and worked in the Professional Aerial Display Fireworks industry. He holds an FAA Airframe & Power plant License and worked as Contract Maintenance on Military Aircraft. Currently Ken and his wife Lori live in Enid, Oklahoma. He is a Gunsmith, hobby Machinist and restores old equipment. Ken has dedicated his skill-set to support the Disabled Veterans Products and Services Project.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dan Wyatt taught Industrial Technology from 1970-1985 primarily in SW Mo. Following his teaching career, Dan developed and co-owned a wooden fishing lure manufacturing business which he operated for nine years. Under his leadership, the fishing lure company grew from 6 accounts to more than 900.
Upon selling the company, Dan turned his attention toward environmental issues. He invented and received patents related to specific recycling processes and created Agricultural Waste Management, Inc.
As a hobby Dan is involved with the restoration of old wood and metalworking machines. Through his hobby, Dan has had the opportunity to meet many people who shared his interests. Several have been disabled Veterans. After learning of the sacrifices of and barriers facing disabled veterans, Dan was moved to utilize his experience growing companies to develop a project to assist those veterans and founded the Disabled Veterans Projects and Services Team.