(above photo by Ted Engelmann)
Our Story
More than 23 million war veterans live in the United States, many suffering in silence and isolation the emotional carnage of war and the desolation many experience when trying to come home. The nation -- including the military and Veterans Affairs -- is
alarmed by high and increasing rates of emotional suffering, suicides,
and family breakdown among these veterans. Many civilians would be inclined to help, but most civilians have no idea how much they can do that will help enormously to break down vets' isolation and ease their suffering. They mistakenly believe that only therapists and psychiatric drugs will help.
In fact, there is much that each of us can do, and the high rates of problems veterans are having make it clear that all of the therapy and other traditional, professionally-run programs are not enough. There is plentiful evidence — from veterans themselves and from more community-oriented cultures — that certain kinds of work that members of the wider community can do with veterans has helped those veterans toward healing. These kinds of work also serve the greater good of deepening civilians' understanding of more of human experience and creating more, and more meaningful connections between two groups of people who often assume they have little in common with each other.
A conference of 30 people helping vets heal in humane, low-risk ways
will be held November 2, 2011, shortly before Veterans Day, in
Cambridge, MA. Each person will briefly describe their work, ranging
from creating community connections to the arts to helping vets and
their families deal with the culture clash that coming home involves.
Each of these kinds of work is characterized by two things: (1)they avoid labeling of war veterans as mentally ill, since to be devastated by war is surely not a disorder but rather an understandable, human reaction, and (2) they are extremely unlikely to cause harm.
A study at Harvard University has shown that simply having a civilian
listen nonjudgmentally to whatever a vet wants to tell about their story
has major positive effects for both the veteran and the listener. This
is just one of a rich, vibrant array of ways that have helped. Others
include training veterans to work for nonprofit organizations, helping veterans and their families create books to help bring form and understanding to how the wars affected them, training service dogs to help traumatized veterans who have trouble trusting people form relationships with their animals, assisting victims of sexual assault in the military, using mindfulness and meditation approaches, and working with veterans to assist them in grappling with the intense moral and existential conflicts so many experience.
Emmy-winning director Mark Harris will film the conference, and a
tightly-edited set of short films will be made available at no charge to
the broadest possible database of municipalities of all sizes
throughout the country, community and social and faith-based groups, and
interested individuals. Notice of where to see the films online will
accompany the message: "Do you as an individual or group want to help
veterans but don't know how? Here is a smorgasbord of ways you can help,
with contact information for people already doing this work. Choose one
or more, get in touch, and start to help."
The Impact
The impact of this work will be to spread the word nationwide (and of course much of it can be helpful in other countries as well) that virtually every civilian can immediately start to help. The educational value of the project will be to highlight the suffering of veterans but also the fact that we need not feel helpless and hopeless in the face of that suffering. The action-related value is that by presenting brief descriptions of programs that caring people can implement, and by presenting both a wide range of such activities and the contact information for those already engaged in them, we make it easy for civilians to see ways they can begin immediately to help, and any civilian will be likely to find one or more activities that will resonate with their own interests and inclinations. The potential for easing veterans' suffering and for involving civilians in meaningful volunteer work is enormous and moving. We have seen it work in each of the projects we are inviting to participate. Those whom we have invited so far have responded with tremendous enthusiasm because of the opportunity it will give them to share what they have learned about breaking down veterans' isolation and helping them truly come home.
What We Need & What You Get
The funding we badly need is to pay for:
--the travel and lodging expenses of those participants who (like most groups that work with veterans) operate on a shoestring and need
funding in order to attend
--one part-time assistant to
help with coordination of the conference plans and the dissemination of
the films and information about them as widely as possible
Enough funding has been raised to pay the film director, his crew, and his editor, and the conference will be held, and the filming and editing will be done no matter what. But we believe it is crucial to include not just participants from well-funded projects that are helping veterans (indeed, they will pay their own expenses) but also participants that are all-volunteer or have tiny budgets but have been successful in easing veterans' pain.
Please see the perks we will be delighted to give you if you decide to support this project.
Other Ways You Can Help
It would be great if you would send the link for this project to everyone you know who might be interested in it, post it on Facebook, send it out on Twitter, shout it from the rooftops!