A new partnership in Cincinnati could help decrease veteran homelessness and the number of veterans who find themselves in front of judges after a failed transition from the military and into their new civilian world.
“What this program does, it helps us provide mentors to service members as they‘re getting ready to transition from the military world to the civilian world,” said Sherry Ems, director of military & veteran services for Easterseals Redwood.
The program Sherry is talking about is the ETS Sponsorship program which is a partnership with the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs and the non-profit out of Washington D.C.
The basic concept is to provide introductions for the service member leaving active duty and landing back into a civilian world, wherever they move to in their post-service life. When a service member signs up with the ETS-SP, the partnering organization in the city in which they plan to land is notified of their impending arrival.
“Through that program, they’re connected to us and then we can connect them to a mentor who can help them through their entire transition process,” Ems said. "What we’re looking to do is make that transition more seamless. Don’t throw them to the wolves, let’s help them transition from a life that they’ve come to know for the past three, four, 10, 20 years to a new life and let’s set them up for success right away.”
A successful transition can literally mean the difference between a veteran landing on their feet or falling flat on their face and a lot of it comes down to educating themselves or having someone there to provide them the knowledge necessary to take command of their new life.
“I think it’s going to be life changing,” said Army veteran Jennifer Wells.
She was medically discharged and faced a double whammy when she left the Army Reserves as it also impacted her civilian job that required the military connection. She said there was no sponsor waiting for her when she ended up on the doorstep of her future.
“I literally had less than a month to figure out what I was going to do, and the Army was my everyday life,” she said.
She now works as Veteran Outreach Coordinator for Easterseals Redwood and as a peer mentor coordinator for Hamilton County Veterans Treatment Court. She said partnering up with ETS-SP will truly give a helping hand to those service members taking advantage of the program.
“End of the day our goal is to make sure they’re prepared to go back to civilian life and don’t go down a rabbit hole,” Wells said.
She said she’s seen what happens when veterans go down that rabbit hole with her work with veteran’s court and believes if many of those veterans had a mentor to help with their transition things would have turned out differently.
“There are a few of them that I know if they had gone through a program like this there’s no way they would be going through vet court right now. It definitely would have changed the outcome of their life,” Wells said. “Some of them get out they have nowhere to live, nowhere to work they’re literally starting over.”
Every year more than 200,000 men and women start over after serving their time in the service and landing back home. Ems said in 2021 alone approximately 2,000 Army soldiers separated and parachuted into Ohio and Kentucky. The numbers go up even more when you add in members of the other branches.
“This program is aiming to replicate the sponsor that you would have when you change duty stations and bring it back to when you transition out,” Ems said.
She said while Easterseals Redwood has many other services and programs for veterans who separated several years ago, this program is focused on those who just got out or those who will be newly transitioning out of the military.
According to the ETS-SP website service members will be introduced to the program during their participation in the Transition Assistance Program or TAP which is part of the military members out-processing from their military service.
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