I'll speak to transition in two different planes here. One is that initial transition when I got off the plane a few years ago, versus the career transition, which happened more recently.
With regard to the first, I essentially came back from Afghanistan, as I mentioned. Thirty days later I'm sitting at the steps of the University of Ottawa saying “okay, back to class.”
There are services of support there in existence for reservists to tap into for support, to make that initial transition a little bit easier, but they're really hard to come by, and there's kind of an absence of communication, more or less, with regard to if I had an issue. I saw friends first-hand who had issues coming back and who probably needed some resources. The services of support are there, and then the individuals over here, and there's no communication with how the individual might navigate the process in order to get the resources they need.
It's a long battle for many people, and I sat with my friends through many a long night helping them navigate those issues. So there's a communication thing. That's what I wanted to emphasize.
Second, I'm going to echo Derryk here with regard to the transition of the job. In my experience it comes down to grassroots organization groups like Treble Victor that I have first-hand experience with. It's a wonderful resource to tap into a community of ex-military individuals to find that mentorship, to find that guidance and leadership to help you navigate through that next phase of transition. You have made it back from the conflict. You have made it back to just a normalized life, let's say, and now you actually want to actualize your aspirations and achieve your goals, and that usually involves getting a job in the economy.
How do you do that? It's building that community, and building that network. It has been my experience, and I'm very grateful for the experience I've had with Treble Victor in building that professional network in the GTA. I know there are chapters that are growing throughout the country, so it's an organization that will grow in time, of course. And it is absolutely indispensable.
So to echo the bottom-up approach, there are groups advocating within that realm and that are ensuring there is continued support to the individual when and if they choose to make that initial leap into civilian life, as it were.