November is Military Family Appreciation Month as well as Veterans Day month. We salute all Veterans and family members among our ESGH staff and clients, also the staff members providing military-connected services.
Remember the Ladies
In the U.S. today, 1 in 10 Veterans are women, and two million women are Veterans. Female Veterans have most of the same challenges as male Veterans—plus higher rates of depression, isolation, and sexual trauma. Fortunately, female-specific support options are growing. Two examples are the Women Warriors Initiative and our local VIEWS program (Veteran Initiative Empowering Women’s Stability, Skills and Self-Determination).
VIEWS is a program of Santa Maria Hostel, a Houston nonprofit that “empower[s] women and their families to lead healthy, successful, productive and self-fulfilling lives.” BridgingApps now offers digital-skills training to Veterans at Santa Maria. Says Ale Gonzalez, Digital Navigator:
“We do similar work as at recenter; for example, troubleshooting problems clients might have with their devices. Santa Maria is a much smaller group, though—on average 2–4 Veterans at once—so we have time to focus more on their individual needs and concerns.
“My most recent client needed help resetting a Google account password. I’ve also qualified two of the newest Veterans in the program for digital-skills training and free refurbished laptops, through a Google grant.”
One Woman’s Story
The following first-person account is from Chasity Wohlford, a Navy Veteran and currently a Veteran Navigator at Easter Seals Greater Houston. Note the importance of networking and learning new skills.
I am the only female Veteran in my family, although my dad, most of my uncles, and a couple of male cousins were in the military, along with my husband and son. My parents divorced when I was an infant, and my mother doesn’t understand the military lifestyle at all. It was and is sometimes hard to talk to family about my military time and my experiences as a female Veteran: the best conversations are with my husband and son.
After the military, the biggest challenge for me was how much less structured civilian life is. Also, it wasn’t easy finding employment. My MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was CTA (Cryptologic Technician Administrative), and I had plenty of experience encrypting, decrypting, and filing top-secret messages; but those weren’t job skills that translated easily after I got out of the service. I’d moved back to my old hometown, a small factory town in Virginia, nowhere near any high-security facilities. Relocating was not an immediate option; plus, I had a small child.
In 2013, I got a job as a driver for a drug treatment facility (I was in recovery myself). I then became a recovery coach with the facility’s Veterans program, and was certified as a Mental Health Peer Specialist in 2014. In 2019, I learned from a fellow woman Veteran about an available research position at the VA, and she helped me get that job by connecting me with the research-grant coordinator.
I’ve also been on a couple of committees with Erica Toskovich, a family therapist at Easter Seals Greater Houston. So earlier this year, as the VA grant job was winding down, I reached out to Erica to see if ESGH was hiring. Luckily they were, and here I am now.