Veterans returning from deployment often face a dearth of job prospects or unfulfilling work situations. And as more troops prepare to return home, one program is seeking to provide them with a valuable employment opportunity.
Officials behind Veterans Across America are hoping to start the first-ever youth mentorship program to pair veterans with at-risk inner city youth.
“Many of the veterans that come through the Army say they joined to avoid jail or a coffin,” said Wesley Poriotis, the founder of Veterans Across America. “They grew up in rough neighborhoods. Now that they”™re out and back in their inner-city neighborhoods, they see those kids and they want to help ”¦ (they see) there”™s a predictable path to trouble.”
Project VALOR, supported by Veterans Across America, aims to give young people an opportunity to connect with mentors of a similar background. The project is just getting off the ground, and Poriotis said he has high hopes for the program. No other youth program utilizes veterans, he said.
Upwards of 7,000 new veterans are expected to return to Connecticut in the next couple years, yet veterans historically are underemployed. Poriotis said sometimes that”™s their choice too.
“Veterans want their work to feel valuable,” he said. “Many joined the military post-9/11 as a patriotic sense of community and giving back. ”¦ They want to do something positive with a sense of mission.”
Poriotis, a resident of Old Lyme, plans to launch the program in New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., and with a strong base in Connecticut, he also hopes to launch programs in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.
Earlier this month, Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch endorsed Project VALOR for “providing employment opportunities for our soldiers returning home and giving our at-risk youth mentors who will lead them in the right direction.”
However Poriotis said he”™s already running into a number of challenges. He”™s in the process of searching for funding sources and community organizations to partner with. But some people seem to be skeptical of the effectiveness of the program or think it could serve as an Army recruitment program for young kids, he said.
“There”™s a lot of myths and stereotypes about this demographic that has to be overcome,” Poriotis said. “I don”™t think veterans are the be-all, end-all. But I think it”™s a partial solution” to inner city violence.
Poriotis said he”™s had mothers tell him they watch their kids like hawks but that the gangs at schools and in their neighborhoods can be hard to combat. At only 8 years old, kids can be recruited as lookouts, he said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide is the leading cause of death for black youth ages 15 to 24 and the second-most common cause of death for black children ages 10 to 14.
“Many of the kids have no male role model,” Poriotis said. “They”™re from single mother families and their only role model is the kid with the ring or the jacket who”™s 15 years old.”
“Veterans can give personal examples of taking on responsibility and leadership,” he added. “They can give them hope beyond what these kids face right now.”
