The first graduating class of 14 veterans is now trained and ready to work in the green tech industry. This story from the Denver Post describes how one of the graduates experienced the program.
George Webb left the Army in 1989 and, for a while, drove trucks for a living. At a low point, he spent four or five years living on the streets.
But Tuesday afternoon, Webb graduated from a new two-month program certified to evaluate the energy efficiency of homes and the promise of a job maintaining a biodiesel plant in New Orleans.
He found the training through a group that aids homeless vets.
“I kind of walked right into it,” he said. “A week before I’d seen on the news about renewable energy and solar power.”
Webb and 14 other veterans, many newly returned from Iraq, on Tuesday became the first graduating class from the Veteran’s Green Jobs Academy, a new non-profit aimed at retraining veterans for jobs in the environmental sector.
The cohort spent a month in class, learning environmental and energy efficiency basics. The next month the class fanned out visiting low-income homes throughout the state and telling residents how to cut their energy costs and consumption.
Each veteran emerged with a certification in home energy auditing and can get community college credit for their work.
The housing provided for the vets in central Colorado - facilities built for farm workers - reminded Thomas Cassidy, 26, of barracks. The program, a quick and hand-on approach followed by immediate deployment to waiting jobs, has a certain military flare as well.
Cassidy said he finds the work rewarding.
“In a large part of the region, their bills are out of control, and they don’t know what they can do about it,” Cassidy said.After graduation, he’s staying in Denver to help organize an urban reforestation effort using homeless veterans as workers.
The group’s commencement speaker, Gov. Bill Ritter, lauded the program for its focus on military veterans and green energy.
“One of the ways we want to honor you … (is to) give you an opportunity to create a different future for yourself and your family.”
Ritter also signed into law Tuesday five bills aimed at helping members of the military by expanding access to in-state tuition and mentoring programs, making it easier to vote while overseas, better advertising benefits for veterans and boosting support for veterans in nursing homes.
The Coming Home Project, based in San Francisco, California, is holding a retreat for OIF & OEF family members with deployed loved ones to gather, relax and restore July 25-28, 2009. The retreat will be held at the Angela Center in Santa Rosa, California.
The challenges family members face during their loved one’s deployment are unique and acute: managing separation, communication, parenting, employment, marital concerns, and financial issues are just some of the challenges. Children and teenagers also can find this period extremely stressful.
Renew mind, body, spirit, and relationships in a beautiful, tranquil setting in Santa Rosa, California.
Learn relaxation, breathing, movement and other techniques for managing strong feelings, reducing stress and enhancing well-being.
Improve communication and relationships. Enjoy tennis, volleyball, basketball, swimming, leisurely walks and delicious food.
Find comfort and strength, safety and trust in the presence of others who know the impacts of serving.
Share stories and experiences, use writing and drawing to express what is sometimes hard to say, and support and learn from one another. Everything is confidential.
Pollan is author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a New York Times bestseller. His previous books include The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). He’s also a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.
In this talk from last April, presented in San Francisco as part of the Long Now Seminars speaker series, he presents the premise, as described on the Fora TV site, that “Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan’s talk promoted the premise — and hope — that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to produce lots of calories cheaply, and they did. They became the most productive humans on earth. A single farmer in Iowa could feed 150 of his neighbors. That is a true modern miracle.”
This is about making agriculture sustainable.
This video takes one hour and twenty-six minutes (1:26) to watch, but you can choose to watch only short segments, as provided if you click the Full Program link.
The Patrick McCaffrey Foundation and VICTRI ask you to
please join us for a patriotic day of awareness at the future site of
VETERANS’ VALLEY FORGE VILLAGE
A PLACE FOR VETERANS OF ALL AGES AND GENDER, VETERANS FROM WWII TO TODAYS CONFLICTS, TO HEAL, LEARN NEW PERSONAL AND JOB SKILLS, AND FIND QUALITY OF LIFE WITH THEIR FAMILIES.
Fundraiser
SATURDAY, MAY 16TH – 1:30PM
* 11:00AM…GOLF TOURNAMENT AT THE SAUK CENTRE
COUNTRY CLUB – 320-352-3860 – PRIZES AWARDED
$20 entry fee includes cart and BBQ
FOLLOWED BY
Jimmie Coulthard, founder of VICTRI and MACV, and a strong voice for Veteran needs, to do a presentation on the future use of the campus.
Meet Nadia McCaffrey, founder of the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation, Mother of Patrick McCaffrey and Gold Star Mother.
Michael O’Gorman,of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, to discuss the sustainable agriculture program for the village. Sustainable agriculture is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment.
Veterans returning from war and the military are looking for something that has lasting meaning-that is sustainable and life giving.
Beckey Lourey, Gold Star Mother, and former 16 year State Senator, to talk of her experiences and her support of this project. Also, she is a proponent of organic and sustainable farming.
Brad Kirckof, Mayor, to discuss the City of Sauk Centre’s support of the project.
Meet local Gold and Blue Star Mothers and elected Representatives
Tours of the grounds and buildings scheduled throughout the day.
* 3 MEAT BBQ BUFFET…$8.00 (tax deductible donation) children under 5 free
· CASH BAR sponsored by The American Legion
· Childrens Games with prizes-Bring the Family
LIVE MUSIC AND DANCING WITH
“MODERN DAY DRIFTERS”
FOLLOW SIGNS FROM DOWNTOWN SAUK CENTRE
LOCATION: FORMER HOME SCHOOL PROPERTY-N. MAIN ST.
THIS FUNDRAISER IS TO ASSIST WITH EXPENSES WHILE SOLICITING FUNDING NECESSARY TO OPEN THIS MUCH NEEDED VETERANS FACILITY.
CALL MIKE WEISSER IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS…..760-963-0352
“The future of our Armed Services and the future of this country will be integrally linked with how we take care of our Veterans” George Washington
Matt Mccue - one of the veterans FVC has been most strongly associated with during our formation, is hosting - along with his partner, Lily - an open house this Saturday at Shooting Start CSA in Fairfield, California.
Follow the link for more detailed directions and schedule.
Part of the reason our current food production process is in trouble is that, in the interest of corporate profit we’ve stopped paying attention to what’s good for the land that grows that food. Our practices of planting every available acre, using precious irrigation water as if there was a bottomless supply, fertilizing with petro-chemicals and allowing our topsoil to erode have been the non-sustainable. Eventually, the required resources are depleted and the land stops producing.
Our emphasis at FVC is on promoting sustainable farming practices. Most veterans returning from war and the military, we believe, are looking for something to do that has lasting meaning - that is sustainable and live-giving.
So we’re grateful to have agencies like the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, that provide beginning farmers and experienced agricultural producers with guidelines, lessons, tips and best practices for planning and managing sustainable farming operations.
Known as ATTRA (it’s original name was Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas), the Information Service is “managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service. It provides information and other technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States.”
We’ve blogged here on several occasions about the emergence of training programs for new farmers. Here, for example, in Lehigh County, PA. And here, in New England. Now there’s a program starting up in Wisconsin, at Stoney Acres Farm in Athens. WSAW reports on the program in a video here on their website.
“We teach them certain skills but we also teach them sort of record-keeping and financial planning and how to plan a farm and show them our spreadsheets and they’re part of the operation, which is a little bit different,” said Catrina Becker of Stoney Acres Farms.
Becker says her and her husband believe training new farmers is important for the future of agriculture.
She feels as people learn more about where their food comes from, that knowledge has the power to transform food systems and allow small farmers to stay in business.
It’s not all about fighting in a mostly rural theatre where the natives are stuggling just to survive off of what they can grow. The Army has come to recognize that success can only be attained if soldiers are also helping citizen farmers support themselves.
In an article in Army Times that describes other changes in training for the First, we find the following:
One unique mission that recently was added to First Army’s training repertoire is preparing agribusiness development teams for deployments to Afghanistan.
The training program for the ADTs so far has been ad hoc because the mission is relatively new, said Maj. Gen. Mick Bednarek, commanding general of First Army’s Division East. But the training continues to evolve and become more refined as more teams are formed, and trainers are pulling together experts from the deploying team and its home state to help them address issues such as economics, agriculture, farming, soil and energy generation, he said.
When Col. John Smith, commander of Division East’s 158th Infantry Brigade, got the mission to train the Indiana Guard’s ADT, he raised his eyebrows, scratched his head and went to work developing a plan to combine war fighting with farming’s many complexities.
“I’m a boy from the city. I just thought it was a bunch of guys that were going to go out there and teach the Afghan farmers how to grow crops,” said Smith, who also trained ADTs from Texas and Tennessee.
Smith and his staff pulled together all the information they could about the first agribusiness teams to deploy to Afghanistan, enlisted the expertise of agricultural scientists at Indiana’s Purdue University and began to replicate Afghan farm land at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center near Camp Atterbury, Ind.
“There isn’t any manual, there isn’t any guidance of how to train agribusiness development teams,” Bednarek said. “What we did … is figure it out, put the concepts on paper, form them and then physically make it happen and execute it well above the standard that anybody ever expected.”
Here’s another press account of the great work that Colin and Karen Archipley are doing down in Valley Center, CA. It’s great that they’re getting so much attention because they are a fantastic model for the mission of FVC.
The recycling process Archipley uses to grow bio-hydroponic organic basil may be part of thefuture of farming, especially in Southern California, where water is in increasingly short supply.
But for the men working with Archipley last week, their future is much more personal. The workers are part of a unique program coordinated by the Department of Veterans Affairs t
o offer a second chance, as well as a peaceful environment, to vets.
* * * * *
Archipley, 28, said he never imagined his small farm could help fellow veterans when he started the project in 2006 after returning from three tours in Iraq. Then again, while growing up in Northern California, he never thought he would be farmer.
“I didn’t have any background,” he said about farming. “My wife had an itch to move to Italy a couple of years ago, and I didn’t want to move out of the United States. But a friend said if you like Italy, you should check this place out.”
The rolling, open hills surrounding his farm looked enough like Tuscany for the couple, and Archipley and his wife, Karen, moved onto the property and began selling their avocados and basil at local farmer’s markets.
* * * * *
Archipley said he would like to see the program duplicated around the world, and he sees it having great potential for veterans returning from urban wars.
“Take an Iraq vet or an Afghanistan vet, where every roof was a potential danger,” he said. “What do you do? Come back and work in an urban environment? You can’t just put them in Wal-Mart and expect them to greet customers.”
The first six veterans through the program have been older than the typical Afghanistan and Iraq vets, but the program already has its own success stories. One of the first two men in the program was a homeless Desert Storm veteran, who now is employed by Archipley and living in a mobile home on the farm.
The Pat Tillman Foundation has announced that the new Leadership Through Action - Tillman Military Scholars program is accepting applications.
The new Leadership Through Action initiative continues to support the mission of the foundation to carry forward Pat Tillman’s legacy of leadership and civic action by supporting future generations of leaders who embody the American tradition of citizen service.
Individuals eligible for the Leadership Through Action - Tillman Military Scholars program include veterans and active service members of both pre- and post-9/11 service; service members who wish to start, finish, or further their education; service members of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard, and Reserve); service members pursuing undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate, two-year, four-year, public, private, vocational, and trade degrees or certifications; and dependants of service members (children and spouses).
The selection committee will review applications according to unmet financial need, educational and career ambitions, length of service, record of personal achievement, essay question responses, and demonstration of service to others in the community and a desire to continue such service. Please note that applications will be separated into two pools: service members and dependents.
Guidelines and applications are available at the Pat Tillman Foundation Web site.
