OUR MISSION: Yellow Ribbons United strives to close the gap between military service and civilian responsibility.
Our mission motivates us to speak on behalf of important issues that face military personnel and their families. Read on to learn more about our key focuses at Yellow Ribbons United. If you agree, consider volunteering with us at an upcoming event, donating or showing your support to a local military family through our new "Kid2Kid" initiative.
EDUCATION: With large numbers of service members leaving active duty soon, many will opt to become student veterans and attend American colleges and universities. The transition to college life may present a variety of administrative, financial and academic obstacles. With the proper assistance and support system in place, our student veterans can be successful.
FAMILY SERVICES: When military personnel serve, their families serve as well. Spouses and children of service members often pay the ultimate sacrifice by experiencing incomplete family units when a parent is deployed. They leave friends and family to start a new life when they are relocated. Often the stress of military life can lead to broken marriages and families. YRU believes in the importance of the strong family unit. We support the efforts of organizations that help to make life a little easier for military families.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS: Many of our service members are not returning home as the same person they were when they left. Many have suffered physical injuries that leave them disabled. While others seek help for mental injuries like substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and other emotional problems. Unfortunately, a growing number do not seek help at all instead choosing suicide as their only option. We must make the health and wellness of our troops and veterans a top priority.
JOB CREATION: Despite the fact that the Department of Defense spends millions of dollars training our forces, veterans struggle to find employment in the private sector. After the end of World War II, our economy flourished when the US workforce was flooded with qualified veterans. Yet still, our well trained, highly disciplined and ready-to-work veterans remain unemployed. Within the next five years over a million service members will be leaving active-duty. We need to prepare the private sector to welcome and employ them.