Trick Out Your Xbox Live Avatar and Help Real Warriors

Activision Blizzard announced that proceeds from the sale of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 avatars on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® between December 2 and December 16 will be donated to the Call of Duty Endowment.

Custom avatars let gamers personalize their online profiles with their favorite elements from Modern Warfare 3.  More than 30 items for the game are already available in the Avatar Marketplace, and In honor of the franchise’s continuing partnership with the Endowment, two additional avatars—American Special Forces and Special Ops Juggernaut—are now available.

The most recent announcement from Activision Blizzard comes on the heels of a recent $3 million dollar donation and an announcement that proceeds from Modern Warfare 3’s epic soundtrack will also go toward the Call of Duty Endowment as well.

Every dollar of these funds will be used to help our veterans find jobs and make a successful transition to civilian life.  We are excited for every opportunity that lets us partner with the Modern Warfare fans out there.

Jobs Numbers Slowly Looking Up and Companies Reaching Out to Hire Vets

In November, the national unemployment rate fell to 8.6% and 120,000 corporate jobs were added.  In similar fashion, the number of jobless veterans also dropped 1 percentage point to 11.1% unemployed. It’s small, but still some positive movement for the country.

As Dan Fazio notes in a GI Jobs blog, “…the numbers for Post-9/11 veterans are heading in the right direction. There’s still a long way to go for this group – particularly the youngest veterans – but the encouraging number is the 7.7 percent unemployment rate for ALL veterans in November.”

One of the best decisions any company can make is to hire a qualified veteran.  Veterans are natural leaders and experts at determining the best route to accomplish any task.  And now new legislation will provide, “a tax credit of up to $5,600 for hiring veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, as well as a $2,400 credit for veterans who are unemployed for more than four weeks, but less than six months.”

The Wall Street Journal reports on some of the employers that have vowed to hire veterans.  “More than 15 U.S. companies, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Cisco Systems, Delta Air Lines and AT&T, said earlier this year that they will hire a total of 100,000 transitioning service members and military veterans by 2020. Positions range from entry-level to managerial and about 3,000 have already been hired, says Frank Bisignano, chief administrative officer at J.P. Morgan Chase, which spearheaded the mission.”

And where can you look for these job openings?  Try some of the following resources:

Military.com– www.military.com

100,000 Jobs Mission– www.100000jobsmission.com

GI Jobs— www.gijobs.com

My Next Move– www.mynextmove.org

Milicruit– www.veteranscareerfair.com

Veterans.Jobs– http://veterans.jobs

Companies Step Up with Initiatives and Programs to Help our Unemployed Veterans

Answering our nation’s call for companies to step up and help our unemployed veterans, many employers such as Hormel Foods Beloit, Sears Holdings, and the Union Pacific Railroad are doing just that. Amongst others, these three companies have been recently recognized for their commitments to hire and/or support the hiring of veterans.

It is essential that companies and organizations alike are working together to either find industries that complement veterans’ skills, or create effective training programs which prepare them for a new career.

Although there is no simple solution, the Endowment believes that through continued support of various training programs and company initiatives, our nation can collectively suit our veterans’ needs. The timing has never been more important than now to make a difference.

With Help from Programs Like Veterans Green Jobs, Veterans Find 21st Century Careers

Last week the Huffington Postemphasized the growing demand for employees within the green energy sector. With the current veteran unemployment rate being higher than the national average, it seems only fitting that organizations, programs, and initiatives are popping up all around the country to train veterans for these jobs.

“The renewable energy industry is growing fast – solar and wind energy have grown more than tenfold in the last decade – and military veterans often make good fits for green jobs.”

Seeing the value and effectiveness of training veterans for green energy jobs, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded Veterans Green Jobs with a grant, so that they may continue to find veterans gainful employment in this particular niche. Other initiatives include Troops to Energy Jobs and Tipping Point’s Solar by Soldier program.

The Endowment is proud to support organizations and programs like Veterans Green Jobs that are training our veterans for 21^st century careers, in an industry that demands more employees.  

Thank You

 Yesterday, the country gathered to give thanks.   As we celebrated with friends and loved ones, families across the nation shared their appreciation for our service members, veterans and military families. 

 There are countless stories of Americans pitching in to help veterans and veterans pitching in to help their communities on this special day.  In Tucson, about 400 airmen, military retirees and their families were surprised when US representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kellyshowed up to help serve thanksgiving dinner at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. 

Unbeknownst to some of us, the great food we enjoyed yesterday may even have been grown by vets.  According to milliatry.com, many U.S. military veterans are turning to farming not only for a second career, but for therapy to overcome their war traumas.  We also blogged recentlyabout the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, an organization dedicated to encouraging and helping young military veterans break into agriculture.

Stories like these warm our hearts and remind us all of the debt we owe to those who sacrifice to keep us free.  And at the Call of Duty Endowment we want to reiterate that the best way to thank a veteran is to hire one.  Jobs offer structure, support and meaning that we all need.  The employment situation for veterans remains challenging, and as we enter the holiday season, we should all remember that our veterans still need us.

Luckily there are individuals, organizations and government agencies working to help veterans transition to civilian life and find rewarding employment.  Click here for a list of resources available for vets and their families. 

At the Call of Duty Endowment we want to say thank you again, and we will continue working to support everyone who serves.

Helping Veterans Find Employment Best Medicine

Dr. Peter Kramer, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University, writes in an op-ed for The New York Times that finding employment may just be the best medicine for those veterans returning home and facing mental illnesses such as depression and/or thoughts of suicide.

Dr. Kramer explains “When soldiers leave the military, they lose what service provides: purpose, focus, achievement, responsibility and the factor the CNAS report calls ‘belongingness.’ The workplace can be stressful, but especially for the mentally vulnerable, there is no substitute for what jobs offer in the way of structure, support and meaning.”

To help those veterans struggling with mental health illnesses, many companies and organizations are reaching out to veterans with employment initiatives. For instance, Prudential just recently announced that they would be donating $6.2 million to 10 nonprofit groups that help veterans and their families transition back to civilian life.

Similarly, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded AMVETS a grant earlier this year to support the opening of their local employment centers across the U.S. The most recent of these centers opened in Tulare, CA where ABC 30 reports that 42-percent of veterans in the area are unemployed. With the help of the Endowment, these new AMVETS centers will provide free online courses and resume workshops.

Helping our veterans find gainful employment means much more than just helping our downturned economy – it means helping some fight for their lives back.

USA Cares Helps Graduating Kentucky Veterans

With so many veterans returning home and looking to start a civilian career, many are turning to higher education programs in the hopes that they will provide them the necessary skills and training to make them competitive forces in the current job market.

 Some initiatives are even directly aimed at helping veterans succeed in the higher education setting. One example is Governor Rick Perry’s College Credit for Heroes program, which calls for veterans to be provided college course credit for the training they received in the military. However, for many, going back to school is not the simple solution to finding gainful employment.

Many veterans still struggle to find jobs and support themselves or their families. To help these veterans in need, USA Cares, a nonprofit organization especially geared to veterans, has implemented a program for veterans a year from graduating Western Kentucky University or any of the 16 schools in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.

Kentucky.com explains that “the grant will help cover everything from expenses associated with moving to take a new job to simply providing a tank of gas to get a veteran to a job interview.”

Our veterans need support every step of the way to finding employment and successfully transitioning to civilian life. Even if it just means buying a tank of gas for a veteran to attend a job interview, USA Cares know that even the small things make a huge difference.

G.I. Jobs Provides a Great Resource to Those Veterans Looking for Employment

G.I. Jobs just recently released their 2012 list of Top 100 Military Friendly Employers, which offers unemployed veterans a powerful resource in finding those companies that not only understand the type of transition that veterans must make to civilian life, but also find veterans’ skills and attributes valuable to their company and industry.

2012 military friendly employers include Amazon at #1, Southern Company, and Verizon.

With each of these rankings, G.I. Jobs includes a detailed profile, including information such as top 5 jobs/field for veterans, top 5 geographic areas for hiring in 2012, and  the top trait and/or quality that the company seeks in new hires.

G.I. Jobs justifies the method through which they assigned these rankings by explaining that “Our rankings of the Top 100 Military Friendly Employers® are based on a survey which assesses a company’s long-term commitment to hiring former military, recruiting and hiring efforts and results, retention efforts policies for Reserve/Guard members called to active duty, and the presence of special recruitment military programs.”

With help from resources like G.I. Jobs, and commitments from companies like Verizon to hire veterans, we can truly make an impact on our devastatingly high unemployment rates.

Times are Tough, But Positive Signs Emerge for Unemployed Veterans

The unemployment rate for veterans remains shamefully and persistently high.  With the slow pace of economic recovery and thousands of service members scheduled to begin returning from Iraq in the coming months, the situation is challenging.

However, public outcry is fueling a nationwide effort to better serve our unemployed and returning vets.  Coalitions of State and Federal Governments, elected officials, non-profit groups and business are coalescing around this critical issue.  Today the House of Representatives voted unanimously (422-0) to pass legislation extending tax credits to businesses that hire veterans.

 From Massachusetts to Georgia to Michigan state governments are also rolling out programs to assist veterans.  Like federal legislation, many efforts feature tax breaks to companies hiring veterans as well as additional programs to help with day-to-day expenses in some states.

Non-profit organizations and the private sector are doing their part to answer the call to hire veterans as well with a wide array of programs. In New York, Goodwill Industries helped find employment for 18 veterans in the last month alone, one-third of which were homeless at the time.  Some veterans are even finding new careers in farming.  According to the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, an organization dedicated to encouraging and helping young military veterans break into agriculture, the average age of an American farmer 60-65 years old and there are opportunities available for veterans.

Finally for our part, on Veterans Day Activision Blizzard, announced a $3 million dollar donation to The Call of Duty Endowment.  The grant will fund our efforts to continue assisting veterans with job training and job placement.  To-date, the Endowment has provided more than $1.5 million in grants and scholarships. These funds contributed to more than 700 veteran jobs, more than 2,500 veterans receiving job training, and more than 30 receiving scholarships.

Rock and Roll!

Recently Activision announced that 100% of the proceeds from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Soundtrack will benefit the Call of Duty Endowment.

The 20-track original score by renowned action composer Brian Tyler (Eagle Eye, Fast & Furious and The Expendables) is now available for digital download at iTunes, Amazon, other major digital media retailers for only $.99 per track.  Tyler’s epic score helps fuel the action in the game, and now it will also help support real-world soldiers in need.

“I am so excited to be the composer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” said Tyler. “I feel privileged to be able to contribute to the building of The Call of Duty Endowment. It is a true honor!”

Proceeds from Mr. Tyler’s Score will help the Call of Duty Endowment aid soldiers as they transition to civilian life, find work and establish careers.  Veterans continue to face persistent high-unemployment, and in these difficult times it is great to see someone like Mr. Tyler pitching in to help.