Program to help veterans find jobs

BROWNSVILLE — Cameron County is facing a wave of thousands of unemployed military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the hundreds already here.

In an effort to address the situation, the United Way of Southern Cameron County is seeking local businesses with positions to fill, and community leaders willing to help out by meeting with veterans, conducting mock interviews and reviewing resumes.

The UWSCC spent the last year organizing a coalition of entities serving veterans to identify gaps in services and ways to fill them. The two biggest gaps, when it came to veterans, were housing and jobs. UWSCC officials said they will use a $100,000 grant from the Texas Veterans Commission to address the latter issue. The effort will involve incentives to employers ready to provide apprenticeships or training, and hire out-of-work veterans. A portion of the grant money will be used to set up peer-to-peer counseling sessions for veterans. The sessions, to be held in Brownsville, Harlingen and San Benito, will be an opportunity for veterans to talk about any issues troubling them, with peers and in an informal group setting.

Wendy Hanson, the UWSCC’s community impact director, said the incentives are in addition to federal tax incentives already available for hiring veterans. With the local program, employers can get up to $2,000 to train a veteran or sign up to offer apprenticeships. The UWSCC has enough money to provide incentives for 30 veterans, but hopes to expand the program in the future. The overarching goal is to give veterans a better shot at self-sufficiency once they’re back home.

“What I think is going to happen is, if we don’t figure out how to get them back into employment, the need for the special programs is going to be greater and greater,” Hanson said. “If they can come back and get work, then they’re going to be able to pay their rent and their utilities and food and all those things. But if we do not have employment opportunities, those things will start to snowball quicker than we’ll ever be able to manage.”

A GROWING CHALLANGE

The number of unemployed veterans in Cameron County is growing. As of December, 560 veterans were receiving unemployment. Another 840 were registered with the Texas Workforce Commission as actively seeking work.

Bill Hollis, the UWSCC’s coalition coordinator for veterans, said the county’s unemployment rate for veterans 25 and younger is “somewhere around 30 percent.” The overall unemployment rate in December was estimated at 11.2 percent for Brownsville, 9.5 percent for Harlingen, and 9.8 percent for San Benito. The state average is less than 8 percent.
“In Afghanistan they’re planning on bringing the troops home up to a year earlier than they had originally anticipated, so it’s going to create an increased burden on the resources that are available,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to give veterans another alternative.

We’re not replacing other services. We’re just trying to find ways to augment, to assist, and help the veterans get the services that they need to reintegrate into their community. That’s the purpose of the coalition: To get all of these agencies, all these entities that can assist in providing services, together in one place.”