July 23rd, 2008
There are a couple of local organizations / efforts that I wanted to quickly promote.
The first is Peace Center USA (check out their website here).
Peace Center is an initiative that will provide fast, easy, and free
access to confidential treatment for veterans and their loved ones who
suffer from PTSD and related issues.
Peace Centers will
be operated independently from the Veterans Administration but will
seek to complement medical and psychiatric treatments currently
provided by the VA to veterans.
Our objective is not
to create a new 501(c) 3, with additional overhead, etc. Rather, Peace
Centers will ideally be imbedded in other human services non-profit
organizations that already have certified and trained professionals on
staff (e.g. Licensed Mental Health Professionals or LMHPs) to
administer treatment and which have the facilities to accommodate
additional clients. (Peace Center is currently developing a pilot
program to be administered by the YWCA of Omaha.)
Peace Center’s primary role will be to a) identify and formalize best practices b) coordinate imbedding Peace Centers into existing human services related non-profits and c) raise funds for the above through the 501(c) 3 tax exempt status of Peace Center’s non-profit partners.
I love this effort and think that it is a great way to provide a needed and valuable form of support for those men and women that have voluntarily served and put themselves in harms way. Regardless of how you feel about the politics and foreign relations aspect of things, this seems to be an area where we can stand together. One way to support this effort is to attend their upcoming fundraiser at The Waiting Room on August 16th.
The second organization that I want to give some love to is INROADS. I have plugged them before, but I am facilitating a panel conversation for them this weekend and thought it was a good time to mention them again. INROADS is a wonderful organization with the mission of “developing and placing talented minority youth in business and industry and prepare them for corporate and community leadership”. When they say talented minority youth, they are deadly serious. Having had a few chances to interact with INROADS interns over the past few years I can tell you that they are the best and brightest. If your organization has any interest in competing in the war for talent, in bringing talented and innovative young folks into your organization here is a great place to start. INROADS is a powerful resource on a national level and our local client manager, Ashira Jones is a wonderful resource for our community. You can find more information on their web site.