Thanks.
My name is Doug Allen. I'm a retired infantry soldier, and now I have a master's degree in social work. My relationship with the Veterans Transition Network is that I graduated from the program myself. Like many veterans, I decided to make sure I was advocating for everybody else, and I wanted to make sure this program was good to go for my troops. What I found was that I needed more help than I thought, and I got it from the veterans transition program. Since then, I joined the team as a coordinator for Atlantic. I have been the para, and now I'm also a clinician in the program.
One of the differences with the veterans transition program is that it uses camaraderie, the same thing that soldiers need to do their job when they go into combat or tough situations. The veterans transition program re-creates that camaraderie, which they need in order to identify their triggers and their stuck points in life. They utilize that camaraderie to get themselves out of that. That's what the veterans transition program does.
When Oliver was talking about it, he broke it down into three phases. It's one of the most important components of the veterans transition program, because it enables us to get out of that safety bubble that was created by the program itself. We leave the safety bubble and we go back into what's essentially the unknown, civilian life. That is what scared us, because we're not used to it, and that's usually where our troubles occur. It's not while we are on a mission; it's when we're at home.
Using the space in between the phases, we're able to go back to where we feel unsafe and use the skills we learned where we did feel safe, which was within the veterans transition program. With how we developed the program, we're able to see what works and what doesn't. We know we're coming back into that bubble in the next phase, and we're able to say what worked. Then we're able to tailor what has to happen the next time. Instead of it not working and having no answer, individuals are still part of the program when they come back in. We can work with them on that so we can fine-tune it for success in the next phase. That is one of the key components to the success of the veterans transition program.